Personal injury advice from
Thompsons Solicitors
Farm Worker Injured in Manual Handling Accident
4th January 2012
A farm employee suffered a shoulder injury in an accident at work, which could have been avoided if better health and safety measures were in place. Our expert personal injury lawyers acted on his behalf in a compensation claim.
Injury at Work
Our client was a tractor driver at a large farm. On the day of his accident he was working alone, pulling a piece of equipment called a cultivator to break up the ground in preparation for planting.
Before he could drive the tractor out of the field onto a public road, he had to raise the cultivator into its stowed position. Although most cultivators have a mechanical system for this, such as a hydraulic pump or lifting crank, this one was very old and did not, so it had to be raised by hand. It was extremely heavy and, because he was straining so much to lift it, our client’s foot slipped beneath him and he fell forwards. He struck his shoulder against the cultivator with force.
As a result of this manual handling accident, our client suffered a frozen shoulder and developed tendonitis. This painful personal injury prevented him from working and he had to have treatment including physiotherapy and steroid injections to help with his recovery.
Compensation Claim
The injured worker approached us for assistance with a personal injury claim, as he felt that his workplace accident could have been prevented if more suitable equipment was provided. A risk assessment should also have been carried out for the task, to ensure that it was being done as safely as possible. After he was injured, his employer did fit a lifting crank to the cultivator to make it safer.
We pursued a claim against his employer and they admitted that they were primarily responsible for the accident. We recovered £6,000 compensation for our client, after rejecting an initial, lower offer.
Workplace Accident Claim Advice
If you have been injured in an accident at work, or any other accident caused by the negligence of someone else, you may be entitled to make an injury claim.
At The Legal Line, our solicitors are specialists in all areas of personal injury, so we can provide you with expert accident claim advice on a cost-free, confidential basis. Contact us on 0800 0328511, or by completing a claim enquiry form online.
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