WorkSafe Victoria | A potato supply chain service has been convicted and fined $95,000 after a worker was seriously injured when their foot became trapped in a machine at a Hallam warehouse.
Fiorelli Packing Co 2 Pty Ltd was sentenced in the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to a single charge of failing to provide or maintain a safe system of work.
The company was also ordered to pay $10,913.68 in costs.
The court heard Fiorelli’s warehouse featured an item of plant known as the potato cutter.
Sweet potatoes would be tipped into the machine’s hopper, then onto a conveyor belt where they would pass through blades and be cut into pieces.
In September 2022, the worker was instructed by his supervisor to climb onto the machine while it was operating and hold a broomstick against the hopper to slow the output of potatoes and spread them on the conveyor belt before they passed through the cutter.
During the task the worker’s foot slipped and became entangled in the rotating blades.
After his supervisor activated the machine’s emergency stop button, the worker remained trapped in the blades and could see part of his foot had been cut off and was located on the conveyor belt. He was eventually freed by emergency services and transported to hospital.
The worker’s foot was unable to be re-attached, ultimately resulting in an amputation of his leg below the knee.
A WorkSafe investigation found that standing on top of the machine while it was operating and using a broomstick to improve product flow was common practice among workers at the warehouse.
The company admitted it was reasonably practicable to have reduced the risk of shearing, cutting, and entanglement by providing an interlocked physical guard or perimeter fence which prevented bodily access to the danger area while the machine was operating, ensuring an isolation procedure, such as a lock-out tag-out (LOTO) system, was in place before workers performed task, and installing emergency stop buttons which were accessible near the danger area of the plant.
