A judge has ordered a farming partnership to pay £18,000 with costs to the tune of £787.87 (over €22,000) after a farm worker suffered fractures.
W Gibson and Son, of Mayville Farm, Cayton, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, agreed to plead guilty to violating Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
The self-employed farm worker (31) fell around three meters from a 360-excavator truck.
Farm worker suffered fractures
According to Leeds Magistrates’ Court, the man was working on the gable end of a barn on the farm when the incident occurred.
The court heard he was operating from a non-integrated work platform, or man-cage,’ mounted on the boom of a 360-excavator vehicle.
He suffered a fractured sternum, six broken ribs and a broken bone in his back. He damaged teeth when the man-cage collapsed from the excavator’s boom.
According to an investigation by HSE, the excavator was utilised with the man-cage because the partnership considered it had superior reach and manoeuvrability for the work of fastening the gable ends to the shed facias.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Chris Tilley said:
“Excavators should not be used for lifting people under any situations,”
“They are primarily designed and developed for excavating with a bucket. As a result, are capable of operating speeds and movements that make them unfit for lifting people.”
“For pre-planned operations like periodic maintenance, non-integrated work platforms should not be employed.”
“This event might have been avoided so easily if the risk had been correctly assessed and appropriate work at height equipment, such as scaffolding or an integrated work platform, along with Mobile Elevated Work Platforms (MEWPs), had been used.”
Read more court-related articles.
56-day prison sentence and animal ban for farmer
A judge has handed a 56-day prison sentence to a farmer for animal cruelty-related offences.
Keith Barber of Joys Green Lydbrook appeared before Cheltenham Magistrates Court on August 11th, 2021.
Barber pleaded guilty to three offences of animal cruelty at a court hearing for:
- Failing to ensure the welfare of an animal, namely two Collie dogs he owned.
He was sentenced for these offences and also in relation to offences against Herefordshire and Gloucestershire County Councils – all relating to animal welfare issues.
Read more on this case.
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