A dairy farmer in Armagh has been fined £1,000 for a breach of health and safety laws which resulted in injury to one of his employees.

In June 2015, an anonymous farm worker was helping to construct a fence on land owned by the dairy farmer – David Murphy – when his left leg was impaled by one of the prongs of a silage buckrake that fell from the front of a telescopic materials handler.

An investigation was launched into the circumstances surrounding the accident and injury to a worker at a dairy, which revealed that there had been a breach of Article 4 of the Health and Safety at Work Order (NI) 1978, and Murphy was prosecuted by HSENI inspectors in charge of the case.

A hearing was held at the Armagh Magistrates´ Court, where Murphy pled guilty to the charge on causing an injury to a worker at a dairy and was fined £1,000.

Following the hearing, an inspector with HSENI’s Major Investigation Team – Kevin Campbell – said:“Farmers must ensure that proper systems are in place to prevent employees being injured. In addition, the correct equipment must be used and be maintained in good working order. Any misuse of equipment, or the wrong choice of machinery has the potential for things to go wrong, resulting in serious injury, as was the case in this totally preventable accident.”