Richard Ogunleye, a father of 3 from South Woodham Ferrers in Essex, was once running for Tarmac Development Merchandise at its production plant in Linford, Essex, on 22nd July 2022 when he entered a fenced-off space to manually blank and investigate cross-check frames. The frames, which lift huge blocks throughout the production procedure, transfer across the manufacturing facility on a trackway.
Ogunleye entered the fenced space thru an interlocked gate which, when opened, was once intended to forestall frames from shifting on that phase of the observe. As he was once running at the desk bound body, any other body moved alongside the trackway into the phase and struck him. His legs had been beaten and pinned between the 2 frames.
He was once trapped because the frames persevered to transport alongside the observe, pushing him against equipment at the subsequent phase. Ogunleye’s proper leg was once damaged and the opposite seriously bruised because the frames moved over axles at the observe. A colleague noticed the incident from a distance and ran to lend a hand, urgent the emergency forestall button in time to forestall additional harm.
Ogunleye spent two weeks in clinic, the place a steel rod and screws had been used to fix the wounds to his proper leg. He was once not able to go back to paintings for greater than a 12 months and underwent in depth physiotherapy.
An investigation through the Well being & Protection Govt (HSE) discovered that Tarmac Development Merchandise Restricted failed to forestall get right of entry to to unhealthy portions of equipment, specifically the shifting frames at the observe, or save you the frames from shifting when workers entered the risk zone. The interlocked gate that workers used to go into the body cleansing space didn’t forestall the facility at the previous sections of observe and subsequently would now not save you a body from shifting into this space when workers had been running.
The HSE investigation additionally published that the corporate had did not act following a number of earlier close to misses in this phase of the observe. The investigation additionally discovered {that a} chance overview were performed through the corporate a couple of years sooner than the incident, figuring out “further regulate measures required to cut back chance to an appropriate degree”. Alternatively, those weren’t installed position till after Ogunleye was once injured.
Tarmac Development Merchandise Restricted pleaded to blame to failing to discharge its accountability below Phase 2(1) of the Well being and Protection at Paintings and so forth. Act 1974. The corporate was once fined £633,300, ordered to pay £5,583 in prices and a sufferer surcharge of £2,000 at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court docket on 29th January 2026.
HSE inspector Connor Stowers mentioned: “This was once a major and completely avoidable incident, which has had profound penalties for Mr. Ogunleye, and had been it now not for the fast motion of a fellow employee, the wounds he sustained may have been worse.
“Employers wish to make sure that unhealthy equipment is guarded successfully, and this is going past the preliminary set up. Employers will have to incessantly track how efficient their measures are and make adjustments as wanted. Tracking preparations will have to come with correctly investigating close to misses and former incidents.
“On this case, had the former close to misses at the block manufacturing line at Tarmac Linford been absolutely investigated and enough motion taken, this life-changing harm would by no means have befell.”
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