Farmer is fined over harvester accident

A FARMER has been fined 10,000 after a hired worker had his leg amputated following a harvesting machine accident in North Yorkshire.

The worker had been attempting to clear a blockage on the machine while the blades were still rotating at Skipsters Hagg Farm at Appleton-le-Moors, near Pickering.

Peter Turnbull, a partner in a family-run farming firm, GR Turnbull and Sons, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Regulations 1998 for allowing someone under his control to enter a danger zone while dangerous parts were still operating.

Turnbull, of Grange Farm, Sinnington, near York, pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined 10,000 and ordered to pay 1,698 in costs by Scarborough magistrates yesterday.

The court heard that the worker, who had been hired to help cut forage maize, was driving a silage trailer while Turnbull was driving the forage harvester in the same field on November 9 last year.

When a blockage occurred in the cutting disc of the harvester, Turnbull attempted to clear it by reversing the drive mechanism. When that failed, he left his seat to clear it by hand, leaving the machine running.

The hired worker came to help, but his leg was caught in the harvester’s rotating cutting discs while he was attempting to clear the blockage. His injury was so serious that paramedics, including an air ambulance crew, made a decision to amputate the limb at the scene.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Charlie Callis said: “Incidents of this kind are all too common in the farming industry, and the outcomes are inevitably equally horrific.

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

“The HSE is working hard to reduce deaths, injuries and ill health in agriculture, but we need farmers, farm owners and workers to do their bit by following basic safety guidelines and implementing safe working procedures at all times.”

Farming is now officially the UK’s most dangerous industry on a ratio of deaths and injuries for the number of people employed.