Dorset dairy company fined after worker's arm crushed

Date:

29 March 2012

A Dorset dairy has been prosecuted after an employee was injured when his arm was pulled into a slurry separator.

Andrew James Ray, 47, was cleaning the equipment at the dairy owned by M Hooper and Sons Ltd in Winterborne Tomson on 2 January 2009.

Weymouth Magistrates' Court heard an unsafe system of work was used for cleaning the rollers of the slurry separator by using a hose and hand brush while the equipment was running. Mr Ray's left arm was subsequently pulled between two contra-rotating rollers, crushing his left hand and arm to the elbow.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), prosecuting, told the court the company was aware its employees were using this system to clean the machinery and that it could result in injury. The machine was equipped with a self-cleaning mechanism which was not working and was therefore being cleaned manually by the farm workers.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector, David Bell, said:

"The company's failure to provide the correct method for cleaning the machine put its employees at risk of injury. M Hooper & Sons Ltd should have ensured the equipment was properly maintained and the self-cleaning mechanism was working.

"It was reasonably simple to install modifications so the rollers were never in motion when the cover guard was open and the rollers were being cleaned. If this had been done when the cleaning problem first arose, Mr Ray would not have suffered as he did."

M Hooper & sons Ltd of Winterbourne Zelston, Blandford, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 2(1) of the Health and Safety of Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £9,000 and ordered to pay £1,448 in costs.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related 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 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."

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