A farmer, Mr Richard Palfrey hired two teenage workers, 19 and 16 years old to work on his farm. The work is to move material with a dumper as part of improvement works at Upper Kingswells farm in the village of long down in Exeter. While Operating the dumper, it overturned on a steep incline. The 19-year-old ended up in an intensive care.
Health and Safety Executive.
The health and safety executive found out that the Farmer failed to ask either the age or what experience the two teenagers had before engaging them for work. Though he gave a short briefing on what he wanted them to do. However, he told them to take a steep route with the dumper that is steeper and inappropriate according to the manufacturers’ recommendation.
HSE inspector Simon Jones said: “Farmers should ensure that only trained and qualified people use work equipment on their farms.
“Farmers should ensure that any equipment they provide is safe to use.
“In this case Mr Palfrey allowed young and inexperienced workers to operate work equipment that could not be used safely. A dumper should only ever be operated by a trained driver and the seat belt should always be worn”.
Fine for the incident
Richard John Palfrey of Upper Kingswell Farm, Exeter, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. He was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of £15,324.40.
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