Halifax firm prosecuted after father-of-two has arm crushed in unguarded machine

A West Yorkshire firm that makes shopfitting 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 father-of-two suffered extensive damage to his right arm in the incident at the Halifax-based company on 7 February 2011. The man was in hospital for two weeks and has undergone eight operations including skin grafts. He will never regain full use of his arm and has been unable to work since.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated and on 6 February the company, who are not BWF members, were prosecuted at Halifax Magistrates' Court for a serious breach of safety legislation.

HSE found the company had failed to provide suitable guarding for the machine to prevent workers from accessing dangerous moving parts.

Magistrates were told that the worker reached into the gap where panels are fed into the machine and his arm was drawn from fingers to shoulder through the gap between the top and bottom rollers.

The firm was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,613 in costs after admitting breaching the Provision and Use of Work Regulations 1998.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Rachel Brittain said:

"The firm failed to ensure that their machinery, which cuts and shapes large wall panels, was properly guarded. Had they put in place simple but effective safeguards then this incident could have been avoided and this worker would not now be facing the rest of his life with a permanent disability.

"Workers in machine shops, engineering works and factories can be put at serious risk because their employers fail to install or maintain safety devices on machines."

Having the correct guards in place is crucial as BWF members will be charged intervention costs of £124 per hour if a breach in Health & Safety law is discovered during an HSE inspection. Joinery businesses are currently being targeted with inspection visits so all BWF members need to ensure they have the legally required Health & Safety precautions in place, including PPE, regular LEV testing, trained first aiders (if necessary), full risk assessments and lung function testing (if necessary).

The BWF has prepared draft Health and Safety policies within the Health and Safety Publications section of the website. Our guidance also includes the set of Machine Safety Cards, and the comprehensive ‘BWF Guide to Health and Safety in the woodworking industry’, which members can download for free.

We have produced a 12 point ‘Health and Safety: the essentials’ checklist to help prevent you getting caught out. You can download it from our Health and Safety publications: www.bwf.org.uk/publications/health-and-safety/3

HSE statistics for 2010/11 show there were 25 fatal injuries and more than 17,000 injuries in the manufacturing industries. It is estimated that British employers would save 250,000 work days each year if they could just keep people safe on machinery. You can get your Health and Safety audited through the BWF's Toolkit+ services with reduced rates for BWF members.