A Buckinghamshire farm machinery manufacturer has been fined after an employee sustained multiple fractures when a trailer crushed his leg.

Waldemar Makowski, of St Annes Road, Aylesbury, was building a farm vehicle trailer chassis at K Two Sales Limited in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire when the incident occurred on 15 August last year.

As he attempted to move a chassis from a yard area at the site using a draw bar attached to a fork lift truck, it fell from its support and crushed his left leg, causing multiple fractures.

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Mr Makowski, then aged 42, suffered long-term injuries and was unable to go back to work for several months while he recovered.

K Two Sales Limited was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found it had failed to consider the risk of the chassis falling or provide an adequate system for supporting and moving heavy items.

Aylesbury Magistrates' Court heard that although the company has since redesigned the draw bar so that it now has an integral supporting leg, the chassis movement operation at the time was flawed and was a direct cause of Mr Makowski's injuries.

K Two Sales Limited, of Fowlers Field Farm, Station Road, Haddenham pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 20 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The company was fined a total of £16,000 and ordered to pay £3,102 in costs.

(CD/GK)