A company that grows mushrooms has been fined over £70,000 after an employee’s leg became trapped in a machine and later had to be amputated.
Luke Ilics, who worked at Howden Enterprises Ltd (trading under the name Hughes Mushrooms), had his right leg caught by the rotating blades of a mushroom filling machine in October 2019.
He became stuck in the device’s moving parts at the firm’s site in Holme-on-Spalding-Moor, East Yorkshire.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into this incident found that Howden Enterprises Ltd failed to adequately assess the operation of the filling machine, in particular the cleaning of the machine.
The firm failed to ensure there robust isolation and safe operating procedures were in place and followed.
Howden Enterprises Ltd, of Trew Mount Road, Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
The company was fined £73,333.00 and ordered to pay £7,522.60 in costs at Hull and Holderness Magistrates Court on April 10, 2024.
Leg amputation
The 29-year-old had climbed onto the machine, which is used to prepare and fill compost in growing trays, to remove the last remaining parts of the compost.
The machine was then turned on, leading to Ilic’s leg being caught by the rotating blades in the mixing axle and becoming trapped.
His leg was later amputated below the knee at hospital.
HSE inspector Louise Redgrove said: “The importance of a suitable and sufficient risk assessment which reflects all actual practical activities cannot be underestimated.
“It is vital to ensure there are effective systems of work and physical controls which are implemented, supervised and used by all those involved.
“This incident could have easily been avoided with a robust isolation procedure and padlock for each worker involved.”
