Prosecutions

A partner at the engineering firm appeared at the town's Magistrates Court in a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) over the incident.

The teenage employee was injured on 1 March 2010 while working at the firm's premises where machinery spares and engineering components for the tobacco industry are manufactured. He had been employed by the firm for six months.

The court heard that the apprentice machinist, who worked with lathes, grinding and milling machines, was changing a cutter on a milling machine when he inadvertently switched the machine on while the cutter was still in his hand.

Half an index finger, most of his middle finger, and both his ring and little finger of his left hand were severed during the incident. Surgery to re-attach the fingers was unsuccessful.

HSE told the court the system of work for changing cutters was not safe and risks from operating the milling machine and changing cutters had not been adequately assessed.

The HSE investigation also found there was insufficient guarding around the machine to protect body parts during its operation. There were no interlocks and the start buttons were not covered, which would have prevented inadvertent activation during setting up and maintenance.

A HSE Inspector commented on the case:

"For a young man to lose four fingers in an incident like this at the start of his career is serious and severely affects his future employment prospects.

"If safe systems of work, sufficient guards on the machinery and adequate supervision had been in place, this would not have happened.

"Every year there is between 40 and 50 major injuries in England arising from milling, turning and drilling activities in manufacturing industries and these could be avoided if safe systems of work were put in place and proper risk assessments carried out."

The partner pleaded guilty to Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,376.40