A sawmill company in Northern Ireland has been fined £87,000 after an employee had his foot amputated following a serious injury at work.

Balcas Timber Limited, based in Ballinamallard, Co. Fermanagh, was handed the fine yesterday (Thursday, March 26) at Dungannon Crown Court.

The company had earlier pleaded guilty to two health and safety offences.

Sawmill

In a statement, the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) said the man was working on moveable track at the entrance to a timber treatment chamber on October 29, 2023, when the accident happened.

He was freed from the equipment by the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS), and flown by air ambulance to hospital, where his right foot was surgically amputated due to the extent of the injury.

An investigation by HSENI found that limit switches on the plant were not maintained in a safe state and defects regularly arose which prevented the safe running of the equipment.

At the time of the incident, the employee was attempting to reset various limit switches associated with the track, following the process stalling during the treatment sequence.

Investigation

The investigation also established that production operators routinely bypassed safety features by placing a large metal pin to hold down control levers on the control panel.

This meant that the machine remained in “ON” or “LIVE” mode when the operators went to physically reset the limit switches, resulting in the moveable track being able to travel while they were close to it.

Speaking after the hearing at Dungannon Crown Court, HSENI major investigation team inspector Kevin Campbell said: “This incident could easily have been avoided”.

“The employee suffered serious lifestyle changing injuries, but the outcome really could have been much worse.

“All employers must ensure that effective, planned, preventative maintenance procedures are in place for work equipment and that these are complemented by pre-start checks carried out by competent personnel.

“All defective equipment and plant should not be used until it is either properly repaired or replaced, by competent personnel.

“Safety control devices, such as hold-to-run controls, must not be overridden or defeated, as this can result in unintended movements of the plant while an operator is in its travel path.

“All employers must ensure, in the event of breakdowns, that they have developed safe isolation procedures, communicated these to the operators, and ensure they are implemented, before attempting to fix the defect,” he added.

HSENI

Following the incident, a HSENI inspector served two enforcement notices on the company.

A Prohibition Notice was served to prevent any further use of the plant whilst the limit switches remained defective.

An Improvement Notice was also issued to ensure the Company implemented procedures to ensure safety related features at the treatment plant were maintained in good working order.

Review

In a statement, Balcas said it “acknowledges the outcome of the court proceedings relating to the workplace incident at its Enniskillen site in October 2023”.

Johnathan Pollock, chief operations officer at Balcas, said: “First and foremost, we reiterate our sincere regret that a member of our team was seriously injured. Our thoughts remain with our colleague and their family”.

Pollock said that Balcas has “fully cooperated with the investigation and accepts the judgment and ruling of the court in this matter”.

“The safety and wellbeing of our colleagues remains our highest priority.

“We take health and safety extremely seriously and we are continuously reviewing and improving our safety systems and business practices.

“We have worked alongside the Health and Safety Executive NI (HSENI) throughout this process and have undertaken a comprehensive internal review of our safety procedures, strengthening systems across the business to reduce the risk of any similar incident occurring in the future,” he said.

Pollock added that “as this matter has now been addressed through the courts, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”