Prosecutions

An international frozen food company has been fined after a worker was injured by the moving blades of an industrial freezer.

The employee was clearing ice from the inside of the freezer when a colleague switched it on, not realising he was inside on 21 November 2008.

The vegetable flow freezer, a piece of equipment that freezes pre-washed vegetables, included a large stirrer to help distribute the vegetables on to a conveyor. The employee was hit by the blades on the stirrer before he could jump clear. He suffered severe bruising to his legs.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the inside of the freezer was dimly lit and once someone was inside it was very difficult to see them because of a mesh grille.

It was also noisy in the freezer meaning communication was a problem, and both men had worked on an overnight shift for more than eleven hours when the incident occurred.

A HSE Inspector commented:

"There were a number of factors that contributed to this incident, including the conditions the two men were working in. However, none of this would have mattered if a safe system of isolation, preventing access to dangerous parts of machinery, had been provided.

"If a lockable switch had been fitted to the control panel and operators instructed to padlock it in the off position whenever they were working near the stirrer, nobody would have been able to switch the unit back on until it was safe to do so.

"The employee was very lucky to have escaped with relatively minor physical injuries. If he had slipped on the wet, icy floor instead of being able to jump clear, it might have been a very different outcome."

The firm admitted breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Regulation 3(1)(b) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

The company was fined a total of £4,700 and ordered to pay costs of £2,639.50p by Spalding Magistrates' Court yesterday (16 November)