Two men were lifted in the bucket of a telehandler and knocked unconscious when the bucket struck an overhead power line.
Shutt & Mansell Ltd director Phillip Mansell, 49, and a 22-year-old self-employed relief worker from Market Drayton were in the loader bucket to access the top of molasses tanks to fit new pipework when the incident happened on 30th September 2013.
An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found that farm routinely used the telehandler to raise workers despite it having no man basket.
Phillip Mansell, of Flashbrook Manor, Newport, was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay £1,495 in costs after pleading guilty to three breaches of section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
The farm’s owner, Shutt & Mansell Ltd, of the same address, was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £800 in costs after admitting breaching Regulation 9(3) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.
HSE inspector Marie-Louise Riley-Roberts said after the hearing,: “There was a very real risk of persons falling from height. It’s only down to luck that Mr Mansell and his co-worker, who were knocked unconscious, fell into the bucket and not out of it, otherwise we could be dealing with a tragic, double-fatal incident.”
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