Prosecutions

A firm has been fined £53,000 (including costs) following an accident which saw an engineer’s index finger crushed and subsequently amputated.

A maintenance engineer decided to take a look at a piece of machinery he planned to work on, unfortunately he slipped and fell into the machinery trapping his hand between two moving parts. The engineer was unable to free his hand and, as the machine was still switched on, the equipment dragged him into it’s mechanism crushing his index finger. His injuries were so severe he had to have an operation to amputate the remains of his finger above the second knuckle.

The HSE investigated this case. In doing so it identified that the engineer’s employer, did not have safe work systems in place for maintaining machinery. The investigation identified that the machine which caused the accident had inadequate guarding in place. The company was prosecuted for breaching the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, for failing to complete suitable and sufficient risk assessments. It was also fined for breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER). The fines for the offences totalled £40,000 and was ordered to pay £13,000 in costs.