A teenage farm worker was crushed to death in a bale wrapper, an inquest has heard.

The death places a spotlight on one of the most hazardous categories of machinery on UK livestock farms. Bale wrappers combine rotating drivelines, hydraulic pressure and confined loading zones, and they sit squarely within the agricultural sector's long-running problem with machinery-related fatalities.

UK fatality statistics consistently show agriculture as the country's most dangerous industry per worker, and machinery incidents account for a substantial share of deaths each year. Young workers face particular risk. Guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is explicit that untrained or unsupervised young people should not operate or work near powered agricultural machinery, and that effective guarding, isolation procedures and clear supervision are legal requirements rather than optional good practice.

The inquest will examine the circumstances of the incident, including how the teenager came to be in contact with the machine, what guarding and isolation systems were in place, and what training and supervision were provided. Coroners in comparable cases have issued prevention of future deaths reports where evidence shows systemic failings in machinery safety or in the management of young workers.

For farm businesses, the case is a reminder of the legal duties that attach to bale handling and wrapping operations. These include ensuring power take-off shafts are fully guarded, that machines are stopped and isolated before any intervention such as clearing film jams or adjusting bales, and that no worker enters a wrapping zone while the machine is live. HSE guidance also stresses key-off, key-away discipline: operators should remove keys and take them with them when leaving the cab.

Bale wrappers present specific hazards beyond the wrapping table itself. Hydraulic systems store energy even after a tractor is switched off, and unexpected movement of rams or turntable components during maintenance or jam clearance has contributed to previous serious injuries. Safe stop procedures — handbrake on, controls in neutral, engine off, key out — are the baseline HSE expects on every machine intervention.

The inquest outcome, and any findings or prevention of future deaths report that follows, will be relevant to every farm running wrapping and baling operations. Farmers should expect HSE inspections to continue focusing on machinery guarding and young worker supervision, and should review their own risk assessments, training records and safe systems of work for wrapping equipment ahead of the next silage season.