Farmer fined £10k after worker loses leg

A farmer has been fined £10,000 after an employee lost a leg trying to clear a blockage on a forage harvester while the blades were rotating.

The 23-year-old man, who does not wish to be named, was helping to cut forage maize at Skipsters Hagg Farm, Appleton-le-Moors, North Yorkshire.

Peter Turnbull, a partner in family farming firm GR Turnbull & Sons, was prosecuted following a Health & Safety Executive investigation.

Scarborough Magistrates’ Court heard the worker was driving a silage trailer while Mr Turnbull was driving the forage harvester in the same field.

When a blockage occurred in the cutting disc of the harvester, Mr Turnbull attempted to clear the blockage by reversing the drive mechanism.

When that failed, Mr Turnbull left his seat to clear the blockage by hand, leaving the machine running.

The hired worker came to assist, but his leg was caught in the harvester’s rotating cutting discs as he cleared the blockage.

The resulting injury was so serious that paramedics amputated the limb at the scene, the court said on Monday (25 October).

Mr Turnbull of Grange Farm, Sinnington, was prosecuted for allowing someone to enter a danger zone while dangerous parts were still operating.

He pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £1698 in costs.

The accident happened on 9 November 2009.

HSE inspector Charlie Callis said similar incidents were all too common in the farming industry.

“The outcomes are inevitably equally horrific,” he said.

“Farmers are under pressure to bring in the crop and time spent shutting down and making safe a machine may, incorrectly, be considered time wasted.

“Taking unnecessary risks like this is never a sensible option, and Mr Turnbull could and should have done more to mitigate those risks.”

Farming is now officially the UK’s most dangerous industry based on a ratio of deaths and injury related to the size of the workforce.

Mr Callis said the HSE was working hard to reduce deaths, injuries and ill health in agriculture, but farmers needed to do their bit too.

Farmers, contractors and farm workers should follow basic safety guidelines and implement safe working procedures at all times, Mr Callis added.