Yahoo News Mushroom firm fined £70k after worker loses leg in machine
A mushroom-growing company has been fined more than £70,000 after a worker's leg became trapped in a machine and later had to be amputated.
Luka Ilic was cleaning a mushroom filling machine when his right leg was caught by rotating blades and became stuck, the Health and Safety Executive said. He was one of a team of three who were working on the machine, which is used to prepare and fill compost in growing trays, at Howden Enterprises Ltd, trading under the name of Hughes Mushrooms, in Holme-on-Spalding-Moor.
Mr Ilic climbed on to the machine to complete the clean-up, but it was then turned on and his leg was trapped. His leg was later amputated below the knee in hospital.
READ MORE:
The victim was 29 at the time of the incident in 2019. An investigation by HSE found that the company failed to adequately assess the operation of the filling machine, in particular the cleaning of the machine. The firm failed to ensure that robust isolation and safe operating procedures were in place and followed.
Howden Enterprises Ltd, of Trew Mount Road, Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. At Hull and Holderness Magistrates Court, the company was fined £73,333 and ordered to pay £7,522.60 in costs.
Louise Redgrove, a HSE inspector, said: “The importance of a suitable and sufficient risk assessment which reflects all actual practical activities cannot be underestimated. It is vital to ensure there are effective systems of work and physical controls which are implemented, supervised and used by all those involved. This incident could have easily been avoided with a robust isolation procedure and padlock for each worker involved.”
