Machinery manufacturer prosecuted for safety failings

Date:

15 October 2012

Release No:

HSE-E-101

A Buckinghamshire farm machinery manufacturer has been fined after an employee sustained multiple fractures when a trailer crushed his leg.

Waldemar Makowski, of St Annes Road, Aylesbury, was building a farm vehicle trailer chassis at K Two Sales Limited in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire when the incident occurred on 15 August last year.

The trailer chassis which crushed Mr Makowski's leg

As he attempted to move a chassis from a yard area at the site using a draw bar attached to a fork lift truck, it fell from its support and crushed his left leg, causing multiple fractures.

Mr Makowski, then aged 42, suffered long-term injuries and was unable to go back to work for several months while he recovered.

K Two Sales Limited was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found it had failed to consider the risk of the chassis falling or provide an adequate system for supporting and moving heavy items.

Aylesbury Magistrates' Court head today (15 October) that although the company has since redesigned the draw bar so that it now has an integral supporting leg, the chassis movement operation at the time was flawed and was a direct cause of Mr Makowski's injuries.

K Two Sales Limited, of Fowlers Field Farm, Station Road, Haddenham pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 20 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The company was fined a total of £16,000 and ordered to pay £3,102 in costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Karl Howes said:

"This incident shows that employers need to fully consider and assess the stability of work equipment. Had K Two Sales Limited undertaken a proper assessment of the movement of the chassis sooner then Mr Makowski need not have suffered serious injury.

"HSE will not hesitate to prosecute those who put workers at risk in this way."

For further information on how to manage risks visit www.hse.gov.uk/risk

Notes to editors

1. 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. Section 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, in particular, the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health.

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