Knowsley factory owner fined after worker severs hand

THE owner of a Knowsley factory has been fined for safety failings after a worker’s left hand was severed in a plastics mixing machine.

Matrix Polymers was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident at its factory on Caddick Road in Prescot on 2 April 2009.

Knowsley Magistrates’ Court heard that Gary McKeown, aged 42 from Widnes, had been emptying plastic granules from a hatch at the bottom of a blender when his hand got caught in rotating parts and was sheared off. Doctors were able to reattach his hand but he lost his fingers and thumb.

A HSE investigation found that the locking mechanism on the machine had been broken for more than a year, and that a wire mesh guard over the hatch had been tied back. The safety mechanism should have stopped the machine operating when the guard was not in place.

Matrix Polymers pleaded guilty to breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations by failing to prevent access to dangerous machine parts.
The company, of Tenter Road, Northampton, was fined £3,500 and ordered to pay £3,500 in costs on 25 March 2011.

Harry Baker, the investigating inspector at HSE, said: “This was a devastating, life-changing injury for Mr McKeown who has been unable to return to work for almost two years now due to the trauma he endured.

“The locking mechanism on the machine had been broken for up to 18 months, but nothing was done by Matrix Polymers to get it repaired. The machine was in use every day, for up to 24 hours a day, so it was almost inevitable that someone would eventually be injured.

“It is vital that manufacturing firms make sure that dangerous parts on machines are properly guarded to prevent further injuries of this kind.”