$595,000 fine follows hay press cutting chamber injury
In Western Australia, a hay processing company has been fined $595,000 after a worker’s leg became trapped in the cutting chamber of a hay press. The incident occurred in January 2023 at a hay processing plant at Carani in the Wheatbelt. Operating the small hay press was a leading hand, working under a labour hire arrangement.
To rearrange some hay bales that had become twisted in front of a chamber in which hay bales were cut in half, the man climbed through an unguarded area onto the press’s conveyor belt and was pushed by the mechanical arm that pushes hay bales into the cutting chamber. His leg became trapped and was fractured, and he suffered a degloving injury.
Interlocked gates were on the opposite side from where this incident occurred, and opening these gates stopped the conveyor belt, but workers had previously accessed the conveyor belt while it was moving — by reaching over the conveyor belt and pushing the twisted hay bales. Doing so was more convenient and faster than walking around to the other side of the conveyor to the interlocked gates.
The company had previously engaged an external safety consultant, who in 2022 warned about the risk posed by the unguarded area of the conveyor belt. The company did not install guarding there at that time; it also did not have a documented safe work procedure for addressing blockages on the conveyor belt. A mesh guard was fitted to the unguarded area after the incident.
“It’s disappointing that we continue to see incidents involving insufficient guarding of machinery, particularly conveyor belts,” WorkSafe WA Commissioner Sally North said. “This case should serve as a reminder that a thorough risk assessment should be undertaken in all areas of a workplace, and engineering controls such as guarding as well as safe work procedures put into place to reduce or eliminate any risks present.”
HA Hold Co Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing serious harm to a worker, and was fined $595,000 (and ordered to pay $5510.00 in costs) in the Northam Magistrates Court on 16 April.
“In this case, the employer had been made aware of the missing conveyor belt guards but had not taken action to remedy the problem,” North said. “Guarding needs to be designed to reduce not only the risks during standard operation of the machinery but also risks that may arise when a worker makes an error.”
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