Engineering company fined after an employee's foot was crushed by a machine

An engineering company was ordered to pay over £11,000 after an employee’s foot was crushed by a poorly-guarded machine.

The incident

The employee was operating a machine when his foot was crushed and trapped by the machine’s ram. He had to be freed by colleagues who were able to support him and release his foot. He had to have his right foot amputated, following the incident, and he also sustained fractures to his remaining toes and cut his head.

The Health and Safety Executive investigation

A Health and Safety Executive investigation revealed that if the machine had been better guarded, the incident would not have happened.

HSE inspector Alec Ryan said:
"This incident was wholly preventable and could have been avoided had the company carried out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and taken the necessary measures to make the machine safe.

"The machine in question was very powerful and it is wrong that a worker was put at unnecessary risk because safety devices weren't working.

"Incidents of this kind are all too common and it is vital employers prevent access or exposure to dangerous moving parts at all times."

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Source: http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2013/rnn-se-05713.htm

Electrical apprentice suffers electric shock at building site

An electrical apprentice suffered an electric shock at an apartment site in Canberra last week.

Early investigations suggested the fourth-year apprentice was working alone on a platform ladder and was shocked by a live circuit that she believed had been switched off.

"It's supposed to be turned off and when it is, it should be tagged so that no one else turns it back on" said Work Safety Commissioner Mark McCabe.

The government's inquiry into health and safety laws on ACT building sites found the ACT had the worst record for construction site safety in Australia with one in every 40 workers expected to sustain a serious injury on the job each year.

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Source: The Canberra Times

Firm fined £60,000 after an employee's hair was ripped out by machinery

A company has been fined £60,000 after a young worker was severely injured when her hair was ripped out by poorly guarded machinery.

The 25-year-old was sorting clothes hangers on a conveyor when her scarf and hair became caught in the chain and sprocket drive of the belt as she bent over to remove accumulated hangers.

She sustained serious throat injuries, lost a substantial part of her hair and fractured a finger in the incident.

The firm had fitted a guard to the conveyor but it did not fully enclose the dangerous moving parts. There was no emergency stop button on the conveyor and the company's risk assessment failed to identify the dangers of entanglement in conveyors.

The company was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay costs of £21,668.

HSE Inspector David Wynne said: "Employers must ensure that workers are properly monitored, supervised and trained when working with this sort of equipment."

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Source: http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2013/rnn-w-mainetti.htm

Worker's serious injuries lead to £7,000 fine for labels company

A labels company has been fined for a safety breach after a worker sustained a serious hand injury when it was caught between two contra rotating rollers on a working machine.

The employee severed the first finger of his right hand to the second knuckle and broke his middle finger in the incident.

He was attempting to clean a coating roller on a finishing machine, and had removed the roller several times to make adjustments and clean away dried on primer. He then tried to brush off the dried primer from the roller while it was in situ on the working machine, but his right hand was caught and pulled between two rollers.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive established that the machine was missing suitable guarding, and had been for some time. Had a guard been fitted the incident would have been avoided.

The company was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay £5,637 in costs after pleading guilty.

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Source: http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2013/rnn-se-00313.htm?eban=rss-

Food manufacturer fined after worker loses tip of finger in poorly guarded machine

A food manufacturer has appeared in court for safety offences after one of its workers lost the tip of her finger while trying to clear a blockage in a badly-guarded machine.

The worker was in the production area while a mobile screw conveyor was being used to fill a packing machine, known to block regularly.

HSE found that the fixed guard over the top of the hopper, which prevented workers getting access to the dangerous screw part, had been modified. Instead of being fixed at all four corners, it was fixed at only two, allowing it to be lifted while the machine was running.

The worker attempted to clear a blockage while the machine was operating and her hand slipped, hitting the screw mechanism.

The company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,506.

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Source: http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2013/rnn-yh-713.htm

Worker loses 2 fingers in vegetable slicer

A company has been ordered to pay more than $50,000 after an employee had two fingers chopped off in a vegetable slicer.

The company was found guilty of failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing the employee serious harm. The company was fined $40,000 and ordered to pay $12,000 in costs.

The business produced ready-made salads for supply to supermarkets and contained several machines to cut and slice the produce, one of which was a belt slicer. An employee was operating the machine and wanted to clear some vegetable matter from the chamber.

He hit the emergency stop button and put his hand into the chamber, not knowing that the emergency stop button and interlock were not functioning because of a fault in the electrical relay.

The blades were still spinning when he put his hand in and two of his fingers were amputated to the middle knuckle.

WorkSafe acting executive director Ian Munns said the case illustrated how important it was to have lock-out and tagging procedures at workplaces with machinery. "It's never safe to leave any piece of machinery operational while doing repairs or performing maintenance" he said.

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Source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2012/11/01/20/20/40-000-fine-for-finger-slice-accident

Waste management firm fined after 2 workers injured within a week

A waste management firm has admitted neglecting the safety of its workforce after 2 men were injured within just a week.

The first incident happened when site workers were setting up a waste sorting machine for use. One worker climbed on to its front conveyor belt and kneeled down to clear a blockage, while his co-worker thought he had gone to fetch something and started up the machine. He was propelled along the belt and dropped ten feet. He suffered fractures to his foot and skin and nerve damage.

The second incident occurred when a worker was helping to restart a Jaw Crusher machine. He saw some wire tangled in a magnetic belt roller and went to pull it free. The machine suddenly restarted and the wire was pulled back into the rollers along with the worker’s left forearm. He sustained crush injuries to his forearm.

The company had failed to implement simple measures that would have prevented both incidents and had ignored earlier warnings by the Health and Safety Executive about the lack of a safe system of work.

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Source: http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2012/rnn-yh-19212.htm?eban=rss-

Company fined for exposing workers to amputation hazards

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited an auto parts supplier with 13 safety violations at the company's auto parts manufacturing facility. The violations include a lack of machine guarding and allowing workers to perform maintenance on machinery without first isolating the equipment's energy source. Proposed fines total $51,000.

"OSHA is committed to protecting workers, especially when employers fail to do so" said Bill Wilkerson, OSHA's area director.

Twelve serious violations involve a lack of guarding for the points of operation on automated mechanical forging presses, not having machine-specific lockout/tagout procedures, a damaged metal guard on a conveyor, inadequate strain relief and insulation for electrical cords, a lack of periodic inspections, unguarded floor openings, failing to train workers, and failing to lock out the energy sources of machinery during servicing and maintenance.

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Source: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=23142

Manufacturing company prosecuted after worker's arm severed by conveyor

An animal feed manufacturer has been fined after a worker lost his arm when it became entangled in a conveyor. The 35-year-old was attempting to clear a blockage on a conveyor when his right arm became entangled and was severed just below the elbow.

The company had failed to provide a safe system of work for production staff to clear blockages on conveyors and there were no guards to prevent access to the unblocking hatch. The company was fined a total of £20,000 and £9,716 costs.

HSE Inspector Steven Gill, said: "This incident could have been prevented had there been appropriate guarding in place. This type of injury is not uncommon in the manufacturing industry."

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Source: http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2012/rnn-e-99.htm?eban=rss-

National fruit supplier sentenced after neglecting worker safety

A national fruit and vegetable wholesaler has been sentenced for safety failings after a worker lost the tip of her finger at a processing plant.

The 46 year-old worker was using a vegetable slicing machine when it became blocked. She pressed a stop button and opened a side panel to gain access to a conveyor that took vegetables to the cutting head. As she reached in to clear the blockage, the still-rotating cutting blade caught her right index finger and sliced off the tip to the base of her nail.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Jane Wolfenden said: "The company's failure to put an effective system in place to ensure machines had suitable protection devices and to give the workforce sufficient training put their workers at unnecessary risk. It was almost inevitable that injury would result. I hope that this prosecution results in the firm taking their responsibilities far more seriously in the future."

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Source: http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2012/rnn-ldn-17912.htm

Company fined after worker suffers severe hand injuries from a badly-guarded machine

A company has been fined for safety breaches after a worker suffered severe injuries to his hand when it was trapped in a badly-guarded laminating machine.

The 36-year-old agency worker had his left hand drawn into the rollers as he was feeding paper through the machine. His little and ring fingers were left hanging off and his middle finger was lacerated down its entire length. He was in hospital for four days and needed two operations.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Mark Welsh said: "Being drawn into machines because of inadequate guarding - and even a total absence of guarding - happens far too regularly in manufacturing industries. In this case the guarding was insufficient as it didn't prevent access to the drawing-in/crush hazard between the pairs of rollers or the roller and plasterboard."

“The company hadn't properly identified the risks to its workers from the rollers. The importance of robust safeguards to protect workers from getting too close to dangerous moving machinery cannot be overstated."

For more information on this occupational health and safety news, visit: http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2012/rnn-yh-16412.htm

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