Machinery Safety – Fine issued after worker drawn into unguarded machine

Machinery Safety – Fine issued after worker drawn into unguarded machine

Key Facts: 

• Worker left with multiple serious injuries, including a broken neck after being drawn into an unguarded machine
• Machinery safety overlooked
• The HSE said that the incident ‘could and should have been prevented’
• The company was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £1,252 in costs

The Case:

A 60-year-old machinist broke his neck when he was drawn into an unguarded machine when his overalls became tangled in a spindle moulder at a Nuneaton based factory on 18 September 2013. As well as breaking two bones in his neck, he also fractured his right shoulder in the incident, and was left with a split ear that required stitches and plastic surgery. He was hospitalised for eight days, and unable to return to work for ten months as a result of the neglect of machinery safety.

An investigation by the HSE found that the interlocks on the machine had been left totally ineffective by alterations. The spindle moulder that the machinists overalls became tangled in should have been behind closed doors, but the first lock on the door had been removed and put in the lock on the other side. As a result, the machine thought the circuit was complete and safe to operate.

Following a hearing in Nuneaton Magistrates’ Court on 17 February 2015, in which the company pled guilty to a breach of Regulation 11 (1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, the company was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £1,252 in costs.

What the HSE had to say:

Following the hearing, the HSE inspector, Elizabeth Hornsby, stated that:

“This was an horrific incident that left a man with multiple serious injuries. It was also an incident that could and should have been prevented.

It is a basic premise of health and safety that workers should not be able to come into contact with dangerous moving parts of machinery. By failing to ensure that the interlocks were maintained, workers were put at risk, and one could have very nearly paid with his life.”

What the law states:

Regulation 11 (1) if the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states:

Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken in accordance with paragraph (2) which are effective to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar; or to stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone.

Further information and guidance on machinery safety is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/.

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