Workplace fatality claim ends in £60k payout

Safety & Health Practioner recently reported on a Workplace fatality claim that resulted in a £60k fine for the farm after an employee was crushed during demolition project

Farming partnership, J & D Foster Farms LLP, has been fined following an incident on its farm where a 21-year-old employee was killed whilst dismantling a redundant piece of farming equipment.

An employee was crushed by a grain drying tunnel at Fishpond Farm in Tonbridge, Folkestone Magistrates’ Court was told. The employee, George Murrell, sustained fatal injuries in the incident, which happened on 30 April 2019.

The HSE’s investigation found that J & D Foster Farms LLP did not ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of the two employees and that the system of work in place was intrinsically unsafe. The work involved dismantling the grain drying tunnel whilst working underneath it. The structure had heavy aggregate across the upper walkway.

The partners failed to ensure the structural integrity of the grain drying tunnel was not compromised during the dismantle, putting themselves and their employees at significant risk. This risk materialised when the structure concertinaed and fell, crushing George Murrell under the heavy aggregate and framework of the structure.

J & D Foster Farms LLP of Fishponds Farm, Upper Hayesden Lane, Tonbridge, Kent pleaded guilty to a breach of section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. They were fined £60,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,731.

Every year many people are killed or seriously injured within agriculture. Abnormal work on the farm needs to be assessed as to whether the job is within the capability of the farm workers. As work accident claims specialists we are appalled by any workplace accident, let alone a fatality. Our Personal Injury Lawyers are here to help you, if you’ve experienced any kind of injury in your workplace that wasn’t your fault.

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