Firm fined £10k after employee loses finger

A BUILDING firm was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £4,000 costs after one of its employees had to have part of his middle finger amputated.

Magistrates in Newcastle-under-Lyme handed down the fine to Building Adhesives, based in Trentham near Stoke, after the 49-year-old caught his hand on a rubber conveying machine in July last year.

The man, who does not want to be named, was loading large fabric bags containing rubber into a hopper for distribution around the factory.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Magistrates’ Court heard the employee had been using a machine that had been modified when the incident occurred.

The Health and Safety Executive said the firm had previously replaced a fixed guard with an incorrectly fitted interlocked guard, meaning the worker was able to access the screw conveyor where his right hand was subsequently caught, causing serious injury.

The man was taken to hospital where surgeons had to amputate his middle finger past the first knuckle and his ring finger was also damaged.

Building Adhesives pleaded guilty to breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

HSE inspector Mhairi Duffy said: “This incident would have been prevented had the guarding on the machine been fitted properly, or if there had been adequate systems in place to detect the failed guard before the accident.

“The fixed guard had been replaced with an incorrectly fitted interlocked guard meaning this was an incident waiting to happen.

“This man sustained serious injury and he was lucky that it was not worse.”

David Shepherd, operations director with Building Adhesives, said: “We intended to install an interlocking guard on a particular machine as we had identified a fault. We failed to do so and as a result one of our employees was injured.
“We recognised that we had not met our obligations which is why we pleaded guilty in court.

“Prior to the HSE visit last July, we had already investigated the incident and we’ve completely revised our procedures to ensure we cannot repeat that mistake again.”