Farming partnership fined £112,500 after tragic death of worker Keith Wannan
A Fife farming partnership has been heavily fined after a worker was crushed to death in a potato harvester.
- By Craig Smith
- Published in the Courier : 16.09.11
- Published online : 16.09.11 @ 03.39pm
Keith Wannan, who was 34, died en route to hospital following the horrific incident at Foodie Farm, near Cupar. The tragedy happened as he tried to replace rubber sleeves on the machinery on September 6, 2009.
On Thursday at Cupar Sheriff Court, his employer, GJ Orr of Foodieash, was ordered to pay £112,500 after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into Mr Wannan's death uncovered a number of failures in relation to working practices on the farm.
His grieving partner Angela Swan said no fine could bring him back.
Sheriff Charles Macnair said health and safety legislation was in place to "protect the careless employee as much as any other" and paid tribute to the father of two from Cupar.
"It is not clear how it is that he came to be involved in this unfortunate accident and it may well be that, being a loyal and willing employee, he took a risk in order to help his employer by going further than was strictly necessary in the work that he was doing. But that is, to a certain extent, speculation.
"Certainly it is clear that he was a hard-working, efficient and loyal worker."
The court previously heard that to replace the sleeves in preparation for the harvesting season the rollers had to be removed and reinstated. One of the farm's partners, George Orr, had assisted Mr Wannan.
In order to put the rollers in the correct place he turned on power to the harvester using the controls of the tractor to which it was attached at the time. He then left Mr Wannan to complete the work.
When he returned about an hour and a half later, he saw the tractor was running but could not see Mr Wannan. As he got closer he saw him trapped between the rollers.
Mr Wannan, who is thought to have been caught in the machinery for anything up to 30 minutes, was transferred by air ambulance to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee but was pronounced dead on arrival.
The HSE investigation found GJ Orr had not conducted a proper assessment of the risks involved in carrying out maintenance and testing work on the potato harvester.
As the work Mr Wannan was doing required the removal of fixed guarding, GJ Orr should have identified the risk of exposure to dangerous moving parts.
The investigation also found there was no safe system of work in place for maintenance to be carried out.
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