Worker fell in to meat separator

Open-access content Monday 24th April 2017

From the archive: Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

The Beckett's Foods employee was loading meat at the company's Moat House site in Coventry on 11 May 2016. He fell into the machine and sustained serious injuries to his hand, which needed skin grafts.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found there was no safe system of work for using the meat separating equipment, which Beckett's had not fitted with the appropriate level of guarding.

It pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) and 33(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act at Coventry Magistrates' Court and was ordered to pay costs of £10,978.

Bakkavor arm pays £2m for fatal bale fall

Tuesday 2nd May 2017

Jacek Adamowicz, 29, worked at Hitchen Foods, which is owned by Bakkavor Group. On 4 February 2015 he was sweeping the storage yard when a stack of plastic bales collapsed on top of him. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Bakkavor Foods had failed to plan how the bales should be safely stacked and stored, and had not provided formal training for employees who were responsible for carrying out the task.

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Fatal limestone crush leaves Irish firm with £84k fine

Thursday 11th May 2017

Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court heard that Patrick Lambe was part of a four-man team that had been employed to clear limestone blockages in the preheater at Premier Periclase’s plant in Drogheda, County Louth when the incident occurred on 30 October 2014.

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Koch Straightener crush injury hands steel manufacturer £200k fine

Tuesday 16th May 2017

The magistrates’ court, North Staffordshire Justice Centre heard how on 23 October 2015, a 51-year-old worker was removing leftover steel from a machine called the Koch Straightener at steelmaker Rom’s site. As he was removing the material, his hand became trapped between the rotating rollers inside the machine and was severely crushed, resulting in the loss of the top of his right index finger.

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Recycler to pay £160k for bale crush coma

Monday 27th March 2017

Forty-nine-year-old employee Parvez Ahmed was left fighting for his life when an unstable stack of cardboard bales, weighing around 400kg, tumbled over and landed on him as he was carrying out work at the firm’s recycling site on 22 April 2016. Ahmed suffered a cracked skull and a brain haemorrhage.Arrow Recycling of Premier Works, Cornwall Road, Smethwick, West Midlands pleaded guilty to breaching reg 10(4) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was sentenced at Wolverhampton Magistrates’ last week. The company was also ordered to pay £2,917 in costs.

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South West Water sentenced over catchment operator's drowning

Monday 24th April 2017

Robert Geach, 54, was working on the sand filtration unit at the Falmouth Waste Water Treatment Works on 30 December 2013, Truro Crown Court was told, when he slipped and fell into the tank.South West Water dispatched a colleague to the site four and a half hours later, in response to its lone worker alert system. He found Geach floating face-down in the water.

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Utilities worker paralysed during unsafe gas pipe jointing

Thursday 13th April 2017

The employee of Essex-based Forefront Utilities was connecting gas pipes in a trench on 23 May 2014, Maidstone Crown Court was told.New pipes had been rested on packing timber across the trench. The weight of the pipes caused the tarmac under the timber at the edges of the trench to give way. One of the pipes fell into the pit and struck the worker, fracturing his spine. He is paralysed and has no feeling in his bowel.

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