The Health and Safety Executive said that it found an “unsafe system of work”

A flower supplier has been fined after one of its employees had to have his leg amputated following a “serious incident” at a processing facility in Huntingdon. Andy Hazelden was injured while working for MM Flowers Limited at its site in Alconbury Weald.

Mr Hazelden had been helping to manually unload cargo from a delivery trailer ahead of Valentine’s Day on February 4, in 2023, before cargo became stuck on the trailer. Mr Hazelden alongside two colleagues tried to free the cargo. He had to step onto a roller deck where there was a gap.

When they freed the cargo, a skid slid from the trailer and onto the roller deck before striking his left leg that had become trapped in the gap. The 60-year-old sustained “devastating” injuries and had to go through a series of medical procedures.

It resulted in a through-knee amputation. His injuries had been described as life-threatening and have left him reliant on a wheelchair and the care of his wife.

He has also been unable to continue his “much-loved pastime” of riding motorcycles. Mr Hazelden said: “I was fully conscious whilst trapped on the roller deck following the accident… at one point I was genuinely terrified I was going to bleed out and die. I could hear blood hitting the warehouse floor.

“Much of the time during my stay at hospital I felt helpless and undignified. I have pretty much had to learn to mobilise in a wheelchair and learn to walk again using prosthetic limbs. I feel my identity has changed.”

An investigation carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company failed to ensure its employees were safe when unloading aircraft skids from vehicles in the intake area. Workers had to physically intervene when the skids became stuck, which exposed them to risk for moving loads.

The HSE investigation identified a 10cm gap in the roller deck that had not been addressed and created a risk of employees stepping into it. HSE guidance states employers must put suitable arrangements in place to manage health and safety such as designing effective risk control systems and ensuring safe systems are followed in practice.

MM Flowers Limited, of Enterprise Campus, Alconbury Weald, Huntingdon, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £134,000 and ordered to pay £4,908 in costs at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on April 10, 2026.

HSE Inspector Tom Pouncey said: “Health and safety law is there to ensure people can go home healthy from work, sadly a man has had the rest of his life severely impacted due to his employer failing to fulfil their duty.

“Serious incidents like this can occur when everyday work activities have not been properly assessed and unsafe practices are allowed to continue.

“In this case, employees were exposed to risk by being required to manually intervene with stuck loads, and by the presence of an unprotected gap where they were working.

“Had the company identified these risks and implemented a safe system of work, Mr Hazelden’s life-changing injury could have been prevented.”