Prosecutions
Workers loses three fingers, company fined - company guilty of 3 health and safety charges
29/10/2009
Machinery workings must be guarded to prevent operatives contacting dangerous parts the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said.
The HSE has issued a warning to ensure that machinery workings are guarded to prevent operatives from coming into contact with dangerous moving parts of the machinery. This warning comes in the wake of a company which was fined for an incident in which a worker lost part of three fingers.
The working was attempting to clean part of a bagging machine at a plastics factory, a dangerous moving part of the machine was left unguarded and there were no systems in place at the time of the accident for cleaning and maintenance of the machine.
The company pleaded guilty to three health and safety charges at a hearing before magistrates and were fined a total of £18,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,827.80. One charge under Regulation 11(1)(a) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, relating to a failure to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery. A further charge under the Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and a charge under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
The Inspector who inspected the incident said:
"Our investigation showed that employees of this company were not aware of the dangers of putting their hands inside this machine, and there was no guarding to stop them from accessing dangerous areas."
"There was also no clear procedure for cleaning and maintaining the machinery which meant that when operators attempted to clean the probe, they were running the risk of serious injury."
The working was attempting to clean part of a bagging machine at a plastics factory, a dangerous moving part of the machine was left unguarded and there were no systems in place at the time of the accident for cleaning and maintenance of the machine.
The company pleaded guilty to three health and safety charges at a hearing before magistrates and were fined a total of £18,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,827.80. One charge under Regulation 11(1)(a) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, relating to a failure to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery. A further charge under the Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and a charge under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
The Inspector who inspected the incident said:
"Our investigation showed that employees of this company were not aware of the dangers of putting their hands inside this machine, and there was no guarding to stop them from accessing dangerous areas."
"There was also no clear procedure for cleaning and maintaining the machinery which meant that when operators attempted to clean the probe, they were running the risk of serious injury."