Clifford Bros. Ardfert Potatoes Ltd of Tralee Road, Ardfert, was charged in connection with a potentially life-changing farming accident involving a teenager during the harvest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a company sending out young fellows on massive machines,\u201d said Judge David Waters upon hearing the evidence.<\/p>\n
The employee, age 17 at the time, got his foot caught in a Grimme GT 170 potato harvester while working at Snipefield, Kilmoyley on July 27, 2024.<\/p>\n
The company pleaded guilty to three charges related to worker safety and training.<\/p>\n
David Barry, a now-retired safety inspector, was called to the stand by State solicitor Diane Reidy. He testified that an employee, who was 17 at the time, was working alongside two others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were harvesting the potatoes and it went without incident initially,\u201d Mr Barry began. When a \u201csignificant blockage\u201d arose, the workers turned off the tractor to remove blocked stalks.<\/p>\n
Protective safety covers on the machinery were not in place at the time, as appeared to be normal company practice, the inspector noted. \u201cIf those had been put down, they would have been quite safe,\u201d said Mr Barry.<\/p>\n
When one of the workers restarted the tractor, the teen\u2019s leg was pulled into the rollers but caught on a tyre. This may have saved his leg from being pulled further into the machine, the court heard.<\/p>\n
The boys contacted emergency services.<\/p>\n
The victim sustained a fracture to his left fibula, nerve damage and \u201ca flicker of movement\u201d in his big toe, Ms Reidy told the court. \u201cYes, his nerves were crushed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The tractor was running at about 30 per cent capacity, \u201cbecause they were harvesting potatoes and they\u2019re easily bruised,\u201d said the inspector.<\/p>\n
Had it been at 70 per cent, the accident would have had tragic consequences, he told the court.<\/p>\n
No one was properly trained in clearing blockages, he added.<\/p>\n
The company was co-operative and had not come to attention before or since, Ms Reidy told the court.<\/p>\n
The victim did not want to give a statement or appear in court.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung fellows sent out with a massive piece of machinery, without any supervision or training,\u201d said Judge Waters. \u201cHe was lucky not to lose his leg.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr his life,\u201d added the inspector.<\/p>\n
Solicitor for the defence, Brendan Ahern, explained that Mr Clifford had planned to be there and \u201cnormally he would be driving himself\u201d but had a medical operation that day. He noted that it was \u201ca preventable accident\u201d and practices had subsequently improved.<\/p>\n
The company had a good reputation and eight full-time employees, as well as seasonal summer workers, said the solicitor.<\/p>\n
The victim was \u201cback playing football and hurling\u201d, he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a terrible situation and nobody felt worse than Mr Clifford himself,\u201d concluded Mr Ahern.<\/p>\n
Judge Waters observed that in different circumstances, the accident \u201calmost certainly\u201d would have resulted in a jail sentence.<\/p>\n
It was \u201cremarkable luck\u201d the boy\u2019s foot got caught by the tyre, said the judge.<\/p>\n
He fined the company \u20ac500 for each of the three summons and court costs of \u20ac1,000. Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clifford Bros. Ardfert Potatoes Ltd of Tralee Road, Ardfert, was charged in connection with a potentially life-changing farming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[128646,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-299003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-anna-zacharias","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}