The risks of not assessing risks:Dairy farm fined after explosion fatality

A recent prosecution of a Lancashire dairy farm partnership serves as a poignant reminder that a failure to adequately risk assess tasks can have tragic consequences.

In May 2021, an employee of W Hesketh & Son was helping one of the directors with the re-inflation of a large tractor tyre. A sudden explosion of the tyre's inner tube occurred, resulting in the employee's head being struck by the tractor's wheel rim. The resulting head injuries proved to ultimately be fatal.

A Health & Safety Executive investigation found failures on the part of the company to adequately risk assess the work or plan the activity. The company had failed to put adequate steps in place to mitigate risk, and had failed to properly maintain the wheel rim or inner tube of the tyre, such that re-inflation had been unsafe from the start.

On 4 February 2025, at Preston Magistrates' Court, W Hesketh & Son pleaded guilty to a single offence of breaching regulation 2(1) of the Health and Safety At Work Act 1974. A fine of £80,000 was imposed by the Court, along with an order to pay over £8,000 in costs.

In certain (limited) circumstances, risk assessments do not need not be recorded in writing. However, the law still requires that a risk assessment is undertaken for all work activity. Carrying out a risk assessment may help an employer in identifying risks that it needs to mitigate, and ultimately prevent consequences as stark as those in this case from arising.