A FACTORY worker has relived the moment he saw a friend fall to his death in the jaws of a paper crushing machine.

Craig Wolfenden told a Blackburn inquest how he watched in horror as his workmate Mark Earnshaw fell from a stationary conveyor belt into the paper compactor at Smurfitt Recycling on Whitebirk Industrial Estate last September.

The fatal accident happened when the pair climbed on to the conveyor belt to help clear a pile-up of cardboard which was preventing the machine from working.

Their efforts ended in tragedy when Mr Earnshaw, 34, of Wilson Street, Blackburn, plunged into the machine and was instantly crushed. The jury returned a verdict of 'accidental death.'

Smurfitt have already been fined £15,000 for failing to take adequate precautions to prevent an accident when they were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive earlier this year. During the inquest, Mr Earnshaw's workmate Craig Wolfenden described what happened immediately prior to the accident.

He told the jury that he and Mr Earnshaw had climbed on to the conveyor belt which carries paper into the baling machine to clear a blockage.

He said they both believed the whole machine had been switched off, not just the conveyor belt.

Mr Wolfenden said: "There was a big blockage on the belt and the paper wasn't dropping into the baling machine.

"I shouted for the supervisor to stop the machine and he did and then I asked whether it was ok to go on the belt and someone shouted yes.

"So I climbed on and started clearing away the cardboard.

"Mark joined me and we were on the belt, throwing off the cardboard for about five minutes.

"Mark was just in front of me, slightly nearer the entrance to the compactor.

"I heard a noise behind me and turned away from him and saw another worker coming on to the belt.

"Then as I turned back towards Mark, I saw him disappearing into the compactor."

Seconds later Mr Wolfenden heard the compacting machine start up and Mr Earnshaw was crushed to death.

Home office forensic pathologist Dr William Lawler said Mr Earnshaw would have died instantly and would not have known what happened to him.

Janine Leadbitter, Factory Inspector for the Health and Safety Executive said the machine was new and had several emergency power cut-off buttons.

She added that not all the staff had been trained to use the machine at the time of the accident but that working practices had since been changed.

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