Unsupervised 16 year worker injured by defective wood-chipper

An unsupervised worker (aged 16) was maimed by defective a wood-chipper. The recently reported case of a teenager being seriously injured by an incident in which his foot was mangled by a poorly-maintained wood-chipper raises several issues, namely:-

• Lack of effective Health and Safety Induction Training.
• Inadequate supervision.
• Poor maintenance of equipment.
• Lack of suitable risk assessments
• Lack of the establishment of safe systems of work.
• Additional risk assessment for young people were not carried out.

The boy, then aged just 16, lost all of the toes and most of the ball on his right foot in the incident involving a mobile wood chipping machine. Now 18, he still suffers pain and has been left with permanent impairment. The young worker was only three weeks into his first job as a general labourer for a tree surgeon company, and whilst he was working alongside a more experienced colleague, the company had not set out any formal rules regarding supervision.

The more experienced worker was cutting back shrubbery at the back of the building, while the boy was at the front of the property working on his own, feeding brushwood into a mobile wood-chipper. The boy inserted his right foot into the chute of the machine to speed up the flow, but his shoe snagged on the feed rollers and was drawn into the cutting blades. The chipper was missing a vital safety bar around the bottom of the feed chute, which hindered the teenager’s ability to disable the machine. The HSE investigation established that the boy was inadequately trained and had effectively been left to his own devices, allowing him to choose a method of work that posed a clear risk. Although the company knew that the Machine was faulty they left it is service whilst waiting for a replacement part which had been ordered eleven day before the accident. Pleading guilty to breaching s2(1) of the HSWA 1974, reg.3(4) of the MHSWR 1999, and reg.11(1) of PUWER 1998, the Company was fined a total of £7000 and ordered to pay full costs of £5973. The main points to consider here are:

• Young Persons – The importance of training and the need for additional supervision when young persons are employed. It is acknowledged that young people can be less aware of potential dangers and left to their own devices may adopt inappropriate procedures borne out of immaturity and inexperience, lack of knowledge and a wish to make a good impression or show initiative.
• Supervision -The importance of supervision – in this case the boy was effectively working alone out of sight of his colleague and operating a potentially dangerous piece of equipment
• Risk Assessment – The need for risk assessment, method statements and safe systems of work.
• Maintenance and checking -The importance of machinery maintenance, pre use checking and the absolute need to remove faulty machinery from service until such times as it is serviceable.

It is the combination of event which led to this totally avoidable incident.

• If only the boy had been trained and was being supervised…..
• If only he hadn’t climbed into the machinery…..
• If only the faulty machine had been taken out of service…..
• If only the part order did not take eleven days to be delivered…..
• If only…..

The company mitigated that it complied with a Prohibition Notice, issued by the HSE, to stop using the wood-chipper while it was in an unsafe condition. It also switched to more formal contract arrangements, so that it now only uses experienced and competent employees, and tightened up its pre-use checks of work equipment. ………… if only they had done this earlier …………