Prosecutions
A Glossop packaging manufacturer has been fined after a worker was killed when a machine he was working on was activated while he was still inside.
The maintenance worker suffered fatal head injuries at the firm’s site on 8 September 2006. The company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following an investigation into his death.
Birmingham Crown Court heard the father of three was carrying out maintenance work to the inside of a 'cut and crease' machine, used to manufacture packaging, when it was switched on by the operator.
The worker was struck on the head by bars that transfer cardboard through the machine and was killed instantly. He had been working at the company for less than two months.
At an earlier hearing at Chesterfield Magistrate's Court on 21 May 2010, the firm pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by putting workers at risk. The firm was fined £50,000 with £76,150 costs.
The workers ex-wife, and mother of two of his children, said:
"His children have been totally devastated by their father’s death and continue to miss him terribly.
"The hardest thing was telling them their dad had been killed. I remember it vividly and they still find it difficult to accept he's gone. He was a good dad and loved them very much.
"The last few years have just been horrendous. His children now have to live without a father for the rest of their lives because of the company's negligence."
After sentencing, the investigating HSE inspector said:
"The worker tragically died because simple measures were not taken by the company to prevent the machine being switched on while he was inside.
"The maintenance of machinery often involves people working in dangerous situations not encountered during normal production work. People will continue to die in horrific circumstances if employers don't plan, control and monitor maintenance work to machinery.
"Both machine operators and maintenance workers should be given adequate training. If a simple procedure for cutting the power supply to the machine had been followed then the worker’s death could have been avoided."