Farm fined after worker killed when harvester hit power line
© Mood Board/Rex/Shutterstock A farming company has been fined £75,000 after a worker was killed when a potato harvester hit a power line.
Konrad Miskiewicz was working as part of a team harvesting potatoes when the incident happened, in Falmouth, Cornwall.
The 24-year-old was working in an area behind a harvester where potatoes are sorted, Truro Crown Court was told.
Access to this area was via a metal step either side and at the rear of the tented work area. Metal chains were also at each access point.
As the potato harvester was being reversed down a field, it came into contact with overhead power lines.
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One of these lines fell to the floor and Mr Miskiewicz, from Poland, was electrocuted. He was pronounced dead at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.
The Health and Safety Executive investigated the incident, which happened in July 2011.
As a result of the investigation, it prosecuted Pengelly Farms, the company that rented the land and whose employee was driving the harvester.
The company, of Peat House, Newham Road, Truro, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a breach of section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
It was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £50,000 costs.