Shropshire poultry farm prosecuted for worker's fall

Date:

11 November 2011

Release No:

WM531/11

A Shropshire poultry farm has been fined after a worker fractured his pelvis falling nearly three metres from an unguarded platform.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Llynclys Farm Ltd following the incident outside a poultry house at the company's site at Stoke Heath Farm, Market Drayton, on 20 July 2009.

Shrewsbury Magistrates' Court heard how the 36-year-old agency worker, who does not want to be named, was walking on a temporary platform made from stacks of cages to move hens from the poultry house when he tripped.

He fell nearly three metres from the unprotected platform edge, fracturing his pelvis in two places and also suffering a collapsed lung.

HSE's investigation into the incident found Llynclys Farm had identified the risk of workers falling from the platform but did not fit any edge protection to it or take any other measures to reduce the risk of falls.

Llynclys Farm Ltd, of The Mill, Morton, Oswestry, pleaded guilty today to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £6,276 costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Janice Dale said:

"Falling from height remains the most common cause of workplace deaths and those who survive are often seriously injured, as in this avoidable incident.

"Llynclys Farm had identified the potential for workers to fall from the platform but failed to act on its own risk assessment. This dangerous system of work had been in place for around five years before the incident.

"Working at height on temporary platforms made from poultry cages is common practice in the agricultural industry. It's vital that proper measures are taken to minimise the risk of falling, such as fitting suitable guard rails and toeboards."

More information about working safely at height is available on HSE's website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/index.htm

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury."

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News & PR West Midlands