Health and Safety Failings – Overlooked machinery safety leads to injury and prosecution.

Overlooked machinery safety leads to injury and prosecution

Key Facts:

• Machinery safety was overlooked and inadequate at a vegetable nursery company.
• As a result, a worker was drawn into a machine, and required his arm to be surgically reattached.
• The company was fined £18,000, a victim surcharge of £120 and ordered to pay £862.25 in costs.

The Case:

An Essex based vegetable nursery company have been prosecuted over an incident of machinery safety. The machine was designed to gather fibre sheeting full of vegetable and plant waste, chop it up, and blow it through a chute and into a skip.

A 39 year-old employee was tensing the sheet and attempting to feed it into the machine squarely in the incident on 30 April 2014. His glove became tangled in the edge of the sheet, and as a result his arm was pulled into the machine. His left arm became stuck between two parts where it was severed at the lower forearm.

He was rushed to hospital and surgeons were able to reattach the limb – but it will be severely affected for the rest of his life as a result of the company’s poor standard of machine safety. Since the incident, the worker has not regained movement, grip or feeling below the amputation. He suffers constant pain at the wound site. The resulting injuries have left him unable to return to work.

The incident led to an HSE investigation which found several key safety failings of the vegetable nursery company:

• The risk of the dangerous, unguarded element had not been identified, as the machine safety had not been assessed.
• The company failed to establish safe systems of work. This led to employees putting themselves in serious risk of entanglement.

The case was heard at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on 10 March 2015 where the nursery company admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. As a result they were fined £18,000, ordered to pay £862.25 in costs and a victim surcharge of £120.

What the HSE inspector had to say:

Speaking after the hearing the HSE Inspector Paul Grover stated that:

“The failure to look thoroughly at the potential risks of this machine in operation and the absence of safe working procedures, resulted in a worker sustaining major, life-changing injuries under horrific circumstances.

Employers have an absolute duty to ensure that they do everything reasonably practicable to ensure their employees are safe at work.  In this case, the failures by Glenholme Nursery are likely to have a long-term impact on this man’s future working life and financial security.

HSE will continue to actively enforce these legal provisions and where breaches of law are identified, appropriate action will be taken to bring offenders to account.”

What the law states:

Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states:

It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.

Further information on machinery safety can be found here.

Find details of our safety training courses here.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if we can help you find a solution to your safety matters.

Follow us on twitter: @safety_matters