A FARMING firm has been fined £2,500 after an employee cleaning an unguarded harvesting machine had skin ripped from his hand and forearm.

Mark H Poskitt Ltd, of The Firs, Kellington, pleaded guilty at Selby Magistrates' Court to endangering Richard Watson by operating an unguarded machine.

The company, represented in court by Guy Poskitt, was also ordered to pay £527.10 in prosecution costs to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Ian Copland, prosecuting, said the case was brought under the Provision And Use Of Work Equipment Regulations, which requires that dangerous parts of machinery be adequately guarded.

Mr Watson's hand was dragged into a machine being used to pick carrots on August 13 last year.

Mr Copland said the accident history of machines used to pick crops such as potatoes showed that the rollers that removed vegetation by rotating in the opposition direction to the lifting mechanism were dangerous if operators placed their hands in or near them.

John Foster, mitigating, said the harvesting machine had been bought about two years earlier and was used solely for lifting carrots.

He said the company was not aware of the need to carry out modifications under European regulations.

Mr Foster told the magistrates that Mr Watson, who had completed a three-year degree course at an agricultural college and was considered a very valuable employee, knew he should switch off the machinery before cleaning it.

"On the day in question, Mr Watson was cutting a corner and he knew he was cutting a corner."

But Mr Foster said he had "underlined or pointed out a defect in the safety system of the defendant company".

* The case was heard as the HSE accused farmers of risking workers' lives by failing to fit guards on dangerous machinery. Inspectors who visited 180 farms in the Vale of York, Vale of Pickering and Yorkshire Wolds found one in six were breaking the law.

In the 12 months to April, 1997, farming accidents killed 63 people in the United Kingdom, up 40 per cent on the previous year. Three deaths were recorded in Yorkshire and Humberside.

An information sheet produced by the HSE shows that potato harvesters alone claimed eight lives and caused 98 serious injuries between 1988-93.

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