The employee, who was 20-years-old at the time, was working for LP Ollier & Son on a potato farm when the incident occurred on 18 October 2023.
While assessing a blockage in the potato harvester machine, the roller mechanism caught his right leg and pulled it into the device, causing serious injuries including crushing, fractures, nerve damage and skin damage. He has been unable to work in agriculture since the incident.
A subsequent investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the guard gates on the machine were open, while the machine was not isolated.
It also learned that LP Ollier & Son had failed to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery, including the rotating parts of a potato harvester. This was the result of a lack of a suitable safe system of work.
LP Ollier & Son, of Frog Lane Farm, Frog Lane, Knutsford, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. During a hearing at Warrington Magistrates Court, the firm was fined £20,000 with a £2,000 victim surcharge and ordered to pay £5,110.80 in costs.
HSE inspector Joseph Wright said that too many incidents relating to potato harvesters occur because of inadequate systems of work.
“This case was a wholly avoidable incident caused by the failure to follow the safe stop procedure for the potato harvester, and ensure that the machine was fully isolated before a blockage was addressed,” Wright added.
“Had the partnership ensured a suitable safe system of work was followed when blockages occurred, these life-changing injuries would not have occurred.
“The fine imposed on LP Ollier & Son should underline to everyone in the potato harvesting trade and wider agricultural industry, that the courts, and HSE, take a failure to abide by the law very seriously. We will not hesitate to take action when there is a failure to keep employees and contractors safe while they are working.”
