Potato Farm Fined $90,000 for Fatal Harvester Incident

As workers were harvesting potatoes, some plant material got tangled in the harvester and they cleared it away. The operator of the harvester was then signalled to reverse the machine. While in reverse, it rolled over and killed a worker. The MOL found that the farm hadn’t developed or implemented any written procedures for safely cleaning debris from the harvester. It pleaded guilty to failing to do so and was fined $90,000 [Tupling Farms Ltd., Govt. News Release, Feb. 17, 2012].