Food Factory Fined $2.3M After Two Workers Hurt in Fall

A British food manufacturing company, Karro Foods Ltd., was sentenced to pay a fine totaling £1,866,000, or about $2.3 million, after two workers were seriously hurt in a fall at the firm’s facility in Malton, UK, Great Britain’s occupational safety regulator, The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced in a press release Friday. 

The workers were checking a leak on the facility’s roof on April 13, 2016 when the roof light they were standing on collapsed under their weight. One worker experienced a skull fracture, muscular injuries to his leg, and inner ear injuries that have lasting impacts on the man’s balance, memory, and mental state. Another worker received a punctured lung, muscular contusions to the outer right thigh, and four fractured ribs. 

HSE investigators determined that the workers were unaware of the roof lights on the asbestos cement roof because of build-ups of moss and dirt. The company also did not inform the workers that the roof lights were there. 

“This was a wholly avoidable incident, caused by the failure of the company to provide adequate controls against the risks arising from working at height,” HSE Inspector Mark Slater said in a statement. “Consideration of roof fragility and roof lights, visible or not, should be made, especially on older buildings.”

Kerro Foods entered a guilty plea to charges of violating Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974. In addition to the fine, the company was also ordered to pay £8,019 in costs. 

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