A colleague of the Jaguar worker crushed by an F-Type on the Castle Bromwich production line has said he believes it was only the speedy intervention of co-workers that saved the man’s life.
Jaguar Land Rover has now launched an investigation into the accident which took place on Monday morning.
The worker, who has not been named, was working on a section where F-Type bodies and engines are combined when the car body crushed him.
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Co-workers rushed to the injured man’s aid with between 20 and 30 of them helping to lift the car from him.
A colleague of the injured worker, who did not wish to be named, was en eye-witness to the incident and one of those who helped lift the car off the injured man.
He said he believed the rapid response was a potential life-saver.
“I am confident that without the help of myself and many of my other colleagues prying the car off of him, this would have ended as a fatality,” he said.
Explaining how the accident took place, he added: “I was looking directly at him when the incident happened.
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“The car did not drop, there was a fault with both the car’s carrier and the tug on which the engine and axles sat.
“This caused the carrier to jolt forward independently of the tug, pinning my colleague’s chest and neck between the front axle and the rear of the front wheel arch.
“His chest was crushed to the point of compressive asphyxia, he was unable to scream, and he fell unconscious well within 60 seconds of this.
“He is now stable with multiple broken ribs, a broken collarbone and multiple lacerations and bruises.”
The accident took place just after 9.40am on Monday August 17 when assembly workers had returned to work following their morning break.
Another worker at the plant, told the Post it took 20-30 workers to lift the car body from the injured man, who was given first-aid treatment by colleagues before being treated by paramedics and rushed to Heartlands Hospital.
Another worker said: “It was at the point where the engine met the body and this bloke was crushed by the body of the car.
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“We had our morning break from 9.20-9.40am and it happened just after that.
“Other workers were really shocked and we had the group leaders coming around telling us to go to the rest areas.”
The incident, which prompted the immediate shut-down of the F-Type production line, happened just days after Jaguar workers returned from their annual summer shut-down last Thursday.
A Jaguar Land Rover spokesman said: “We can confirm that the West Midlands Ambulance Service attended the Castle Bromwich manufacturing plant today following an incident in a final assembly production area.
“The employee involved has been transferred to Heartlands Hospital and is receiving medical treatment.
“A full investigation is already under way to understand the circumstances surrounding the incident.
“Jaguar Land Rover will not be making any further comment at this time.”
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said a paramedic area support officer and an ambulance crew attended and added: “A man in his thirties had a chest injury and a minor head injury after an incident with some of the plant at the factory.
“When ambulance staff arrived he had already been freed and was being cared for by colleagues.”