Man injured inside industrial vegetable freezerRSS Feed

A food factory worker suffered severe bruising to the legs after an accident at work where he was injured inside a giant vegetable freezer.

Thomas Munford was clearing ice from the inside of the freezer when it was switched on by another worker who did not realise anyone was in there.

When the freezer was switched on, the blades of the stirrer began to rotate and injured Mr Munford before he could move away.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that this was due to dim lighting and a mesh grille inside the freezer which impaired visibility as well as communication problems due to a high level of noise.

In addition to this, both men had been working on their overnight shift for more than 11 hours at the point of the accident at work.

HSE inspector Stuart Parry said: "If a lockable switch had been fitted to the control panel and operators instructed to padlock it in the off position whenever they were working near the stirrer, nobody would have been able to switch the unit back on until it was safe to do so."

Accident claims advice from Serious Law

Posted by M Heap

 

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