Health and Safety Breach Caused Worker Injury, Employer Prosecuted
A worker at a Dorset dairy was injured when his arm became entangled with a slurry separator. The dairy farm was prosecuted for the injury with health and safety breaches cited as the reason. Andrew James was 47 when the incident happened in 2009. He was cleaning equipment owned by M Hooper and Sons. There was an issue with the system in how workers had to clean the rollers of the slurry separator. Workers used a hose and hand brush during the time the equipment was running. This is how the injured party’s arm was caught between the rotating rollers. The rollers crushed his left hand and arm up to the elbow.
The health and safety audits of the incident conducted by the HSE showed that the employees were using this system with the full awareness of the company owners. The machine did not have a self-cleaning mechanism that worked. This is why they were manually cleaning it with improper methods.
The company did not fix the machine so that it would be cleaned properly. They put their employees at risk. This is why the company was prosecuted for the incident and the breach in regulations. Had the equipment been fixed when the issue first arose then nothing would have warranted prosecution. The courts ordered the company to pay £9,000 along with other costs as part of the fine. Employers have a responsibility to ensure their workers are safe, especially when equipment breaks and needs to be fixed.
