A. & A. Welch Limited

Agriculture

4 June 2013

The Defendant had employed a general hand. Part of the employee’s job was to clean the silos. To clean the silos, the employees enter the silo through a door situated approximately 3.5 metres off the ground. The employees access the silo by climbing a permanent ladder welded to the silo, enter the door, climb down stairs on the inside of the silo and using a belt rope, drop down into the silo and stand over the hole. They would then remove the grain off the silo wall either by brooming or scraping. The grain would then be emptied by auger which was under the hole on which the employees stood while cleaning.

After brooming one side of the silo the employee turned to broom the other. As he turned, he slipped, his foot slipping down into the running auger through the funnel hole which crushed and trapped his foot.

A fellow employee who was standing outside the silo realised something was wrong, switched the auger off. When he looked from the door into the silo the victim told him his left foot was stuck in the auger and to get help.

The victim suffered the amputation of his left big toe, disfigurement to his second toe and fractures to his left heel and foot when his foot came in contact with the auger positioned at the bottom of the silo.

Regulation 17(1)(c) Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995

Pukekohe - District Court

Guilty

Guilty

$60,000

$250,000

$25,000 (plus $130 Court costs)