A Sheffield, Great Britain businessman has been fined after he failed to heed warnings from safety experts to properly guard dangerous machinery.
Peter Herring, who trades as A W Parish in Princess Street, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an inspector carried out a routine visit to the company in September 2013.
Sheffield Magistrates heard in early January of this year that the inspector noted during the visit that a radial arm drill was unguarded. A telescopic guard was available for the machine but could not be fitted as it was damaged.
HSE served a Prohibition Notice on Herring to prevent use of the drill until it was properly guarded. The court was told that Herring had been served with a similar enforcement notice by HSE in 2003 and a further letter needed to be sent in 2009 when the same radial arm drill was found unguarded.
Proper Guarding Not in Place
HSE prosecuted the company, which makes fire escapes, balustrades and other metalwork, for failing to ensure that effective guarding was in place to prevent operators from getting too close to the rotating parts of the machine.
Peter Herring, trading as A W Parish, of The Level Works, Princess Street, Sheffield, was fined some $756 and ordered to pay nearly $885 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations.
After the case, HSE inspector Andrew Gale noted, “Fortunately, no one at the factory was injured but this was down to chance rather than any good management. Any one of Mr. Herring’s employees could have been seriously injured as a result of operating an unguarded radial arm drill.
“While he had complied with the prohibition notices within the specified timeframe, he neglected safety again and again, and disregarded any lesson he should have learned from previous enforcement action on the exact same machine.
“Employers of whatever size must ensure that effective measures are taken to prevent access to dangerous moving parts of machinery.”
Author Kori Shafer-Stack, Editor, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in post-injury response procedures and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: [email protected].
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