Hay baling company fined $120,000 over leg amputated by hay baling machine
Issue Date: - Friday, 7 March 2008
A Brookton hay baling company has been fined $120,000 for failing to provide a safe workplace after a man’s lower leg was torn off in a hay press machine.
Elders Hycube Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing serious injury, and was fined in the Perth Magistrates Court yesterday.
The company had previously been fined $75,000 in 2003 over the 2002 death of a 20-year-old female employee who was caught in the moving parts of a hay baling machine at the same workplace.
In October 2004, two men were working late processing hay bales using a hay press. They were the only two employees at the factory.
At around 7.00pm, one of the men noticed that the straps around a bale of hay had broken and the hay had expanded and jammed the entrance to the cutter box of the press machine.
After turning off the machine and unsuccessfully attempting to release the jammed bale, he suggested that the two men tie a rope around the bale and the cutter box ram and turn the machine on so the ram would move back and release the jammed bale.
While one of the men began to attach the rope, the other re-started the machine. The conveyor on which the man was standing started to move and he overbalanced and his right foot became trapped in the hay press.
The trapped man called out and the other man hit the emergency stop button. The press shut down, but not before the man’s foot had been torn from his leg half-way between the ankle and knee.
WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said today that the incident was a shocking example of what could happen when safe work procedures were not in place or were not used properly.
“This case is a reminder to any workplace that includes machinery that stringent lockout systems must be established and followed,” Ms Lyhne said.
“After the offence, the employer installed a metal box over the control panel with padlocks for each employee so no-one else could access the controls and turn a machine on if someone else had turned it off.
“This is a fairly simple measure, and had it been taken earlier, the worker may not have suffered this terrible and permanent injury.
“It is always disappointing when employers do not learn from previous incidents, and this case is a glaring example.
“A young female worker had been killed in an incident involving the company’s previous hay baling machine, and even this did not prompt the employer to ensure that the new machine’s controls were able to be properly locked off.
“I would have thought that after the earlier tragic loss of an employee, the company would have been extra vigilant in ensuring that the risk of injury to workers was kept to the absolute minimum.
“The case should serve as a warning to all employers in workplaces that have machinery that every possible action should be taken to ensure that safe systems of work are in place and that these systems are stringently followed.”
Further information on lockout and tagging of machinery can be obtained by telephoning WorkSafe on 9327 8777 or on the website at www.worksafe.wa.gov.au.