By David Healey, Senior Solicitor · April 2026

A worker at a flower processing plant in Cambridgeshire was helping to unload delivery trailers ahead of Valentine’s Day. Cargo had become stuck. He and two colleagues stepped onto a roller deck to free it by hand.

The load shifted. A heavy skid broke free and slammed into his left leg. His foot was caught in a 10cm gap in the roller deck that nobody had ever thought to close. He was 60 years old. He lost his leg.

On 10 April 2026, the HSE confirmed the company had been fined £134,000 for breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The investigation found two failures that should never have existed together: workers were expected to physically intervene when loads got stuck, and a gap in the equipment had never been identified or fixed.

This post is about what that means for anyone who has been injured at work doing something that felt routine. Something everyone did. Something that had always been done that way.

The Cargo Always Got Stuck. Workers Always Freed It by Hand. So What Changed?

Nothing changed. That is the point.

The HSE investigation found that loads getting stuck on the trailer was a known, recurring problem at this facility. Workers were required to step onto the roller deck and manually push or pull cargo free. It was not a one-off. It was the system of work.

And there was a 10cm gap in the roller deck. Right where workers stood. It had been there before the accident. Nobody had assessed the risk it posed. Nobody had closed it, covered it, or warned anyone about it.

When the cargo finally came free, a heavy skid slid across the rollers and struck the worker’s left leg. His foot was trapped in the gap. The force of the impact caused injuries so severe that surgeons eventually had to amputate through the knee.

He described being fully conscious throughout. He could hear blood hitting the warehouse floor.

I Got Hurt Doing Something Everyone Does at Work. Can I Still Claim?

Yes. And this prosecution shows exactly why.

“Everyone did it” does not protect your employer. It proves the opposite. If a dangerous workaround has become the normal way of working, your employer has allowed an unsafe system to take root. They had the chance to assess the risk and fix the problem. They chose not to.

Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, your employer has a duty to provide a safe system of work. Not just safe equipment. Not just training. A safe system. That means the actual way you do the job, day to day, must have been assessed and made safe.

When the system of work involves climbing onto equipment with an unguarded gap to free stuck loads by hand, the system itself is the hazard. Your employer built it. They allowed it to continue. The HSE inspector’s words were blunt: the injury could have been prevented if the company had bothered to assess the risks of a task its workers performed every day.

But the Problem Had Been There for Ages. If It Was That Dangerous, Wouldn’t They Have Fixed It?

This is one of the most common things people say to us. And it is the wrong way round.

A problem that has existed for a long time is not evidence that it was safe. It is evidence that your employer failed to act. Every day that gap stayed open, every shift where workers stepped onto a roller deck to free stuck cargo, was a day the employer chose not to fix something they knew about.

The law does not require an accident to have happened before for the risk to be foreseeable. Your employer does not get to wait for someone to lose a leg before deciding the gap in the roller deck needs covering. The duty is to assess risks before they cause harm. That is the whole point of a risk assessment.

In this case, the HSE found that the company had not recognised the gap as a hazard. They had not assessed what would happen if a worker’s foot became trapped while loads were moving. And they had not put any system in place to stop workers entering the danger zone while cargo was being freed.

They Will Probably Say It Was My Fault for Not Being More Careful

They might try. Employers often do. But the law is clear on this.

If the system of work itself was unsafe, a worker who followed that system cannot be blamed for it. You were doing what your employer expected you to do. You were doing what your colleagues did every shift. You were not freelancing. You were working within a system your employer created and maintained.

In the Cambridgeshire case, the worker was not doing anything unusual. He was helping to unload a delivery trailer ahead of one of the busiest periods in the company’s calendar. Loads got stuck. He helped free them. That was his job. His employer never provided a safe way to do it. That was the employer’s failure, not his.

Even if contributory negligence is raised, it rarely eliminates a claim. It may reduce the compensation by a percentage, but the employer’s breach of duty remains. And in claims where the worker was simply following the established way of doing things, contributory negligence arguments tend to carry very little weight.

What Happened to the Worker After the Accident?

The injuries were devastating. The worker, who was 60 at the time, underwent multiple surgical procedures before surgeons performed a through-knee amputation of his left leg. He is now reliant on a wheelchair and depends on his wife for daily care. He has had to give up motorcycle riding, a hobby that defined much of his life outside work.

He described his time in hospital as feeling helpless and undignified. He said he has had to teach himself to get around again on prosthetics. His identity, in his own words, has changed.

The company was fined £134,000 with £4,908 in costs at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on 10 April 2026. That is the criminal penalty. It does not include any civil compensation the worker may receive through a personal injury claim, which would be assessed separately based on the full impact of his injuries on his life.

I Was Injured Doing Something Routine at Work. What Should I Do Now?

“Routine” does not mean “safe.” If you were injured doing something your employer expected you to do, and the risk had never been properly assessed or controlled, you have the basis of a strong claim. Here is what matters right now.

What Type of Accident at Work Did You Have?

Every workplace injury is different. Find the guide that matches your situation.