Director Fined Over Factory Death
A boss at a pet food company, who had volunteered to be the sole director responsible for health and safety, has been fined £10,000
after a worker was crushed to death.
John O'Connor, 38, who worked at the Butcher's Pet Care Ltd factory in Crick, Northamptonshire, was crushed when he entered a
machine to clear a blockage.
The company's Operations Director, Philip Thompson, of Flecknoe, Rugby, was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £4,000 costs after being
prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at Northampton Crown Court.
Mr Thompson pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 in failing in
his role as a director to ensure that effective measures were taken to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery.
A machine used to stack tin cans of pet food on pallets stopped working after it become blocked. Mr O'Connor entered a caged area
surrounding the machine via a gap in the fencing to move the pallet, but this set the machine in motion, trapping and killing
Mr O'Connor.
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