Accident at work sees man's leg amputated

An accident at work has forced a man to have the lower part of one of his legs amputated after a problem with machinery.

The accident took place in 2008 when the employee was trying to fix machinery within a grain silo.

The man slipped while inside and his legs became entangled with the screw auger, a rotating piece of machinery used to empty the silo.

Although he was taken to hospital, he was required to have his left leg amputated below the knee, while his right leg was also badly broken and is now held together with plates and pins.

The worker might want to consider making an accident compensation claim after an investigation recently completed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) discovered that there was no supervision on site to ensure that the safety procedures put in place were followed.

HSE principal inspector Peter Dodd commented: “If [the business] had ensured that there was a competent person on site to authorise and oversee the work being undertaken to empty the grain silo, then this incident would not have happened.”