Wooden panelling agency fined £400,000 after injured employee loses leg

A wooden panel producer has been fined £400,000 after a employee suffered life-changing accidents at its manufacturing facility in Chirk, close to Wrexham.

The incident occurred at Kronospan Restricted on 31 March 2021, when a pack of waste MDF sheets weighing round 350kg fell from a trailer and landed on the left leg of Mark Hughes from Johnstown.

The accidents sustained by Mr Hughes, now 53, had been so critical they resulted in him having his left leg amputated beneath his knee. The lack of his leg has been life-changing and he has since needed to transfer to an accessible home. He’s not in a position to keep on together with his hobbies and struggles to climb stairs.

“My harm has modified all the pieces in my life, it’s like someone dropped a bomb on our life and by no means picked up the items,” he mentioned.

“All the pieces now simply takes a variety of planning on doing and spontaneous journeys don’t occur anymore.

“I received’t go wherever that has a variety of steps.”

After greater than two years off work, Mr Hughes has been in a position to return to the corporate, however solely in a part-time capability.

“Some days I really feel okay however some days after work I really feel completely knackered.

“I’ve labored for Kronospan for 27 years and I really feel since my accident it will be troublesome to discover a job elsewhere and begin over,” he added.

“A number of my social connection was from work as a result of I used to work a variety of hours.

“I’ve a high quality of life however it’s a lot totally different than what it was.”

An investigation by the Well being and Security Govt (HSE) discovered that Mr Hughes had loaded a flatbed trailer of waste MDF sheets to move them throughout the positioning to be destroyed. When he started to take off the straps holding the sheets in place, a pack fell off the trailer and landed on prime of him. The highway throughout the positioning was poorly maintained and had plenty of potholes.

The investigation additionally discovered that there was no appropriate threat evaluation or system of labor in place particularly referring to the dangers related to the stacking, motion and loading of waste MDF sheets.

Kronospan Restricted of Chirk, Wrexham pleaded responsible to breaching Part 2(1) of the Well being & Security at Work and so forth. Act 1974. They had been fined £400,000 and ordered to pay prices of £4,701 at Wrexham Magistrates Court docket on 19 November 2024.

Talking after the listening to, HSE inspector Marie Wheeler mentioned: “A person has suffered actually life-changing accidents because of this firm’s failures.

“The incident was utterly preventable had a correct threat evaluation been carried out.

“Nor did the corporate have an appropriate protected system of labor in place.

“HSE will all the time take motion when fundamental failures like these end in very critical harm.”