A man who was helping cut forage maize on a farm near Pickering, had his leg amputated after he attempted to clear a blockage on a harvesting machine while the blades were still rotating.

Last November, the 23-year-old man from Whitby, who does not wish to be named, was employed at Skipsters Hagg Farm, at Appleton-le-Moors.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Peter Turnbull, a partner in family-run farming firm GR Turnbull & Sons, after investigating the incident.

Scarborough Magistrates Court heard the worker was driving a silage trailer while Peter Turnbull was driving the forage harvester in the same field.

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

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The hired worker came to assist but while in the process of clearing the blockage the man’s leg was caught in the harvester's rotating cutting discs. The resulting injury was so serious that, paramedics including an Air Ambulance crew, made a decision to amputate the limb at the scene.

Peter Turnbull of Grange Farm, Sinnington, near York, was prosecuted by the 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. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £1,698 in costs.

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. 



"Farmers are under pressure to bring in the crop and time spent shutting down and making safe a machine may, incorrectly, be considered time wasted. Taking unnecessary risks like this is never a sensible option, and Mr Turnbull could and should have done more to mitigate those risks.

"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 injury per size of workforce.

(BMcN)