The co-owner of a 2,800 acre sporting and fishing estate in the North Yorkshire national park has been fined following the death of a 79 year old occasional worker at the end of October 2013.
James Gaffney, a retired businessman, died after an all-terrain vehicle he was driving on the Urra Estate in Chop Gate overturned on a slope as Mr Gaffney collected dead game after a pheasant shoot. Mr Gaffney – from Hutton Rudby in nearby Stokesly – was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident and became trapped in the vehicle. He was found dead several hours later.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) immediately launched an investigation and found Urra’s co-owner, Malcolm John Reeve of Cold Moor Cote Farm, Chopgate, Middlesbrough, was negligent as he was responsible for health and safety on the estate. Mr Reeve had not ensured workers wore the seatbelt on the vehicle despite it being fitted with one.
Darlington Magistrates’ Court fined Mr Reeve £20,000 plus £1,681 in costs after he admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
During the hearing, which took place on the 17th December, the court heard how Mr Gaffney, a father of three and great-grandfather, had been working as a beater on the estate since taking retirement from his industrial gas business on both a paid and unpaid basis. Due to his age, he had recently been given the job of picking up shot game and bringing it back to the estate’s cold store.
The HSE also told the hearing there were no witnesses to the accident but it appeared the vehicle, which has its own driver’s cab, overturned as Mr Gaffney tried to drive up a grass slope. Mr Gaffney was an experienced driver of the vehicle and there were no defects on it when he drove it.
His cause of death was given as severe head injuries caused by the crash, and it was revealed wearing the seatbelt may well have saved Mr Gaffney’s life.
Julian Franklin, the HSE inspector who investigated the incident, said: “This was a very tragic event that could have so easily been prevented. It is more than likely that use of the seatbelt would have saved Mr Gaffney’s life.
“All terrain vehicles are capable of travelling on very rough and steep ground, but if they do overturn, the driver needs to be retained in the cab. If the vehicle has doors, they should be shut and a seat belt should be used.
The court also heard that the areas of Yorkshire and the North East had been identified recently by the National Farmers Union and Country Landowners Association as the worst in the country for agricultural accidents.
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