Guarding failures left pensioner with life-threatening injuries at wood yard

Date:

11 February 2013

Release No:

HSE/E/006/13

A 73-year-old worker at a Norfolk wood yard was left with life-threatening and life-changing injuries that could have been prevented had the log splitter he was using been better configured and guarded, a court has heard.

The log splitter which caused Mr Fryett's injuries

Basil Fryett, of Great Massingham, King's Lynn, has spent almost six months in hospital following the incident at K Crompton Ltd, in Docking, on 21 June 2011.

Kings Lynn Magistrates' Court heard today (11 February) that he worked at the wood yard preparing firewood three days a week. On the day of the incident he was sitting on the bar of a log splitter talking to a visitor when his overalls caught on the lever for a hydraulic ram that pushed logs into the splitter. The ram closed on Mr Fryett's thigh and crushed him against the splitter.

The visitor managed to turn the lever in the other direction to release Mr Fryett, but by that time he had suffered severe injuries. He crushed his pelvis, tore a large hole in his perineum and sustained significant internal injuries.

He was initially treated in Addenbooke's hospital for 12 weeks before being transferred to Kings Lynn hospital for a further five weeks. He was subsequently re-admitted on two later occasions after developing an infection and an abscess on his back. He then spent four months at home, but in May 2012 was rushed back to hospital after developing blood clots on his lungs, which left only one lung functioning at 20 per cent capability. He remained bed bound for 12 months although has since regained some limited mobility with the aid of crutches.

The Health and Safety Executive, which brought today's prosecution against K Crompton Ltd and its director Kevin Charles Crompton, told magistrates that the log splitter did not comply with the European Standard as there was no guarding to prevent access to dangerous moving parts.

The controls of the log splitter

The court also heard that the manual controls were laid out in such a way that it was possible for the operator to get caught between the ram and the wedge or the logs while operating the controls. In addition there was no device to hold the logs in place which meant it had to be done by hand.

During the course of the investigation it was revealed Mr Crompton did not hold Employers' Liability Insurance.

K Crompton Ltd, of Northcote, Docking, King's Lynn, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. Kevin Charles Crompton, aged 54, of the same address, pleaded guilty as a director to an offence under Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 for allowing the log splitter to be used without appropriate guarding. Both company and director were told to pay a total of £18,000 in compensation to Mr Fryett.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Martin Kneebone said:

"Mr Fryett has suffered life changing injuries because the log splitter he was using had not been guarded to the appropriate standard. The cost of fitting the right controls would have been in the order of a few hundred pounds.

"Until this happened, Mr Fryett was a fit, healthy active man who was cutting five loads of logs a day for three days a week. He enjoyed a busy social life with his wife, but ever since has been confined to bed except for a few occasions when he has walked a few steps with the aid of a frame.

"Doctors told his wife on at least two occasions that he was unlikely to survive. He has pulled through but it will be a considerable time before the full extent of his recovery can be assessed.

"This incident was entirely preventable. A suitably positioned control device that had to be operated with two hands would have stopped this happening and he would not have been left with such dreadful injuries."

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent 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 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states: "Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken in accordance with paragraph (2) which are effective- (a) to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar; or (b) to stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone."
3. Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "Where an offence under any of the relevant statutory provisions committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly."

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