Prosecutions

A Hull-based food manufacturer has been fined £22,000 for repeated safety failings after two workers in Barnsley suffered severe injuries in separate incidents just three months apart.

The first incident, on 29 December 2009, resulted in an employee having his left hand amputated after it became trapped in the rotating knives of an industrial tenderiser.

Weeks later, on 4 March 2010, a fellow worker severed the ends of two fingers on his right hand while feeding plastic film into a machine designed to seal food into packaging.

Both incidents at the same site could and should have been avoided according to the Health and Safety Executive, which prosecuted its operating company for safety breaches.

The company pleaded guilty to two separate breaches of regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

Barnsley Magistrates' Court heard that in relation to the first incident, the tenderiser machine was poorly guarded, with workers able to access dangerous moving parts simply by using a metal object, like a knife, to override a guard interlocked by a magnetic sensor.

Bypassing the interlocked guard made it quicker and easier to feed meat into the machine, but in doing so operators put themselves at risk.

That was the case when the employee was operating the machine - his gloved hand was drawn into the machine and his arm became trapped between rotating knives. Engineers had to free him by dismantling the machine, but his left hand later had to be amputated.

HSE reported that an adequate knowledge and understanding of the requirements covering work equipment combined with a proper risk assessment would have identified the need for improved guarding.

The guarding was also deemed inadequate on the sealing machine that injured the second Barnsley worker. He too was able to access a danger zone with his right hand and his fingers were caught between a sealing head.

The company was fined £8,000 relating to the first offence and £6,000 on the second offence. They were also ordered to pay £8,387.70 in costs in connection to both incidents.

A HSE Inspector commented:

"The first victim will be forever scarred by the horrific injuries he sustained. The incidents that led to his and another employee's injuries three months later were completely avoidable. The company has rightly been held to account for not doing more to ensure its machinery was effectively guarded to protect its workforce.

"I hope today's prosecution serves to remind all involved in food manufacturing that machinery guarding is of paramount importance at all times, and that robust procedures for providing and maintaining effective guarding are necessary in order to identify and eradicate potential risk."

Incidents related to food and drink production account for the majority of all injuries in the manufacturing sector, with injury rates one-and-a-half times greater in this area. For further information on safe working in food manufacturing visit the HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk/food