Prosecutions

An Oxfordshire printing firm has been fined after a worker was injured when part of his hand was pulled into a printing machine.

The 40-year-old employee, who asked not be named was clearing jammed booklets from a stacker machine at a printers in Bicester when the incident happened.

During the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution Banbury Magistrates Court heard the stacker machine at the firm’s premises used belts that ran over rollers to move the booklets along to be packaged for delivery.

On 4 May 2009, the worker, also from Bicester was removing some of the booklets from under one of the belts when the machine started up and caught his left thumb between a feeder belt and a roller. His thumb was pulled under the roller and then crushed and cut as the machine started up again.

The man required both internal stitches and external stitches to his badly lacerated thumb and was off work for six weeks.

The HSE investigation showed a guard was missing from the machine, which would have protected the rollers and prevented access to the moving parts.  Work to use and un-jam this machine was also not properly planned.  Since the incident, the company has installed a guard over the roller.

The printers pleaded guilty to breaching, Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999.  The company was fined £4,000 with costs of £3,289.

A HSE Inspector said:

"This incident highlights the dangers associated with cleaning and maintaining printing machines. It is important when undertaking a risk assessment to consider less frequent activities such as un-jamming blockages, as in this case.

"This incident was avoidable, and had this type of work been properly planned, then this would never have happened."