Farmer Fined After ATV Overturn Kills Employee

A farmer was fined after a passenger was crushed when an All Terrain Vehicle overturned while descending a hillside in August 2022. An HSE investigation found failures in training, seatbelt use, vehicle inspections and key control. The case resulted in a conviction under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The farmer was fined £5500 after an All Terrain Vehicle overturned on 25 August 2022 at Wyesham in Monmouthshire, killing his employee. The ATV was driven down a hillside when the driver lost control, ejecting him from a vehicle that did not have doors. He suffered fatal crush injuries and died at the scene.

HSE investigators found that neither the passenger nor the driver had received adequate training for the vehicle and neither was wearing a seatbelt. The investigation reported there were no routine pre use checks on farm vehicles, tyre pressures were incorrect and different on each tyre, the ATV was being driven in a high gear and in two wheel drive when low gear and four wheel drive would have been appropriate, and the keys were not adequately controlled and were accessible to people without suitable training. 

HSE guidance requires employers to provide those who use All Terrain Vehicles with suitable training and instruction for the type of terrain they will work on, to carry out pre use inspections and to instruct operators to wear seatbelts where there is a foreseeable risk of overturn. He pleaded guilty to an offence under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was ordered to pay costs of £5813 at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates Court on 2 September 2026. HSE’s principal inspector noted that the risks from ATVs in agriculture and forestry are well known and that operators should be trained and wear seatbelts where there is a risk of overturn.

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