The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted a pet food company, after a worker was crushed to death after entering a machine to clear a blockage.

John O’Connor, 38, was working at Butcher’s Pet Care Ltd on the Crick Industrial Estate in Northamptonshire when he entered the caged area of a palletising machine, which transports cans of pet food from conveyor belts and stacks them in layers on pallets. The machine is fully automatic and operates using sensors. It should have been fully-enclosed with an interlock system to prevent anyone gaining access until the power was switched off.

However, Mr O’Connor entered a gap in the fencing created by the stair rails to reposition a blocked pallet – once the pallet was freed the machine was set in motion again. Mr O’Connor was trapped and died from his injuries.

On Monday (12/10/09) at Northampton Crown Court, the company’s operations director, Philip Thompson, of Flecknoe in Rugby pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The HSE prosecution found that Mr Thompson failed in his role as a director to ensure that effective measures were taken to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery.

Mr Thompson was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £4,000 costs.

After the hearing, the HSE’s principal inspector for Northamptonshire, Neil Craig, said the accident was ‘far from being an isolated incident’ at the company:

‘This tragic loss of life could have been so easily avoided had Mr Thompson properly fulfilled his duties as a director.

‘The unfenced gap between the stair rails had been there for nearly two years and it had become common practice for employees to nip through it to fix problems on the machine in an effort keep the production line running – any one of whom could have suffered the same fate as Mr O’Connor.’

Mr Craig added that the level of fine ‘should serve as a stark warning to company directors to take their responsibilities for health and safety seriously’ – as well as reinforcing the message that company directors ‘cannot hide behind the organisation’.

© 5r1 Limited 2009