HSE | A road planning contractor in Leicestershire has been fined £92,450 after an employee’s leg became entangled in a road milling machine and had to be amputated.
On 14 February 2024, the 32-year-old employee, working for Power Plane Limited, was operating a road milling machine at Wade Road in Basingstoke. The operator’s foot became caught by the rotating milling drum, dragging him into the machine.
His right leg had to be amputated by emergency services at the scene to free him from the machine. The life-changing injury left him unable to work for more than a year. He continues to suffer long-term mental and physical effects, including PTSD and persistent pain, as well as having to adapt to living with a lifelong disability.
An investigation by the HSE found that Power Plane Limited had failed to take effective measures to prevent access to the dangerous rotating milling drum of the road planing machine. The manufacturer’s ‘protective bow’, designed to restrict access to the milling drum, had not been attached to the machine. The investigation also found it was common practice for the company to operate milling machines without the guard fitted.
Power Plane Limited, of Highway House, Asfare Business Park, Hinckley Road, Hinckley, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was fined £92,450 and ordered to pay £6,781 in costs.
HSE inspector Peter Crees said: “Every year, a significant proportion of accidents, many of them serious or fatal, are caused by poorly guarded work equipment.”
“This was a wholly avoidable incident, caused by a failure to guard dangerous parts. Had the company simply fitted the manufacturer’s guard to the machine, this life-changing injury could have been prevented.”
This HSE prosecution was brought by enforcement lawyer Rebecca Schwartz and paralegal officer Farhat Basir.
