A rice manufacturing company in Rochester, Kent, has been fined £140,000 after one of its employees got trapped in a conveyor for several hours and later died from shock. Balwinder Singh Aulkh entered a rice silo to check for a blockage, after noticing that the rice was emptying at a slower rate than usual. He entered the silo through a door, which should have been locked, quickly sank into the rice and was dragged into the conveyor.
He was trapped in the conveyor for a number of hours before his leg was amputated at the scene and he died from shock while being transported to the hospital.
The factory failed to install adequate machine guarding and pleaded guilty to breaching reg. 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. Fitted padlocks and an interlock system have been installed since the accident, which isolate the moving parts of the machine.
Mike Walters, Principal Inspector at HSE, said: “This incident could so easily have been prevented if Veetee Rice Ltd has ensured that a suitable system was in place to prevent access to the silo unless the screw conveyor was electrically isolated. If the company had fitted a simple padlock on the access hatch to the rice silo – which could have cost as little as £10-£15 – then this tragic incident would not have happened.”