Employee’s Arm Crushed In Unguarded Machine
A severe arm injury to a British worker has led to the prosecution of his employer.
According to information from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Halifax, a Great Britain firm that makes shop fitting equipment has been prosecuted after one of its employees had his arm crushed when it was drawn into an unguarded machine.
The 35 year-old man from Siddal, who declined to be named, suffered extensive damage to his right arm in the incident at Design and Display Ltd in Elland in February of 2011. He will never regain full use of his arm and has been unable to work since.
The HSE investigated and recently prosecuted Design and Display at Halifax Magistrates' Court for a serious breach of safety legislation.
Machinery Problem Discovered Prior to Incident
As magistrates were informed, in the week before the incident, there had been a problem with chains coming off the machine's rollers and maintenance engineers had been called out to replace them.
At the time the problem recurred, the worker would again notify maintenance, then set the machine running and looked through a slot at the front. He thought he saw some tape on the rollers that would damage the board that was passed between them. He leant in to try to remove it but his arm was drawn from fingers to shoulder through the 15 cm gap between the top and bottom rollers.
A father of two, the victim was in the hospital for two weeks and has had to endure more than half a dozen operations including skin grafts. His elbow has only limited movement.
As HSE’s investigation discovered, the company had failed to provide suitable guarding for the machine to prevent workers from accessing dangerous moving parts.
Design and Display Ltd, of Lowfields Business Park, Elland, West Yorkshire, was fined $3,140 and ordered to pay $2,524 in costs after admitting breaching the Provision and Use of Work Regulations 1998.
According to HSE statistics for 2010/11, there were 25 fatal injuries and more than 17,000 injuries in the manufacturing industries.
Author Michael B. Stack, CPA, Director of Operations, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in employer communication systems and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. He is a writer, speaker, and website publisher. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: [email protected].
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