02/05/2025
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A Loughborough company has been fined heavily for safety breaches after an employee’s ankle was crushed by a CNC router.
HSE have reported that the 46-year-old man, who has asked not to be named, was trying to flush lubricant through the grease unit on the machine at the company when the incident happened on 28 January 2013. He had one foot on the floor and the other on a base plate of the computer-controlled machine, which puts patterns in wood placed on a large moving bed. He asked a colleague to turn the machine on and as it had already been programmed, it immediately moved forward, crushing his foot between the base plate and the moving bed.
The man, from Whitwick, had to have two operations and was off work for five months. He has since returned to the company and is able to walk unaided but will never regain full movement in his ankle and foot.
The HSE investigation found that for certain tasks on the machine, the operators used to have a mobile remote-controlled pendant in their hand to control the machine. However, the pendant had been broken for more than three and a half years and the company never replaced or repaired it.
When the employee asked his colleague to switch on the machine, the latter lost sight of the former so could not see he was not clear of the machine.
The Loughborough firm was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,677 after admitting breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Berian Price said:
“The incident was entirely preventable and stemmed from a failure to keep the remote control pendant – a relatively inexpensive piece of equipment – in good repair and efficient working order. This, coupled with the lack of a safe system of work, led to a man needlessly suffering an extremely severe injury. The company was grossly negligent and failed to consider the risk to employees engaged in certain tasks on the machine.”
Every year around a dozen people are killed and 40,000 injured by machinery. The safety of your workers is of prime importance. The BWF's comprehensive 91 page Guide to Health and Safety in the woodworking industry includes guidance on young persons in the workplace and with HSE recovering costs at a rate of £1000/day for inspections during which a breach is found, BWF has prepared a number of resources to help you mitigate Health and Safety risk such as:
– A 12 point ‘Health and Safety: the essentials’ checklist to help prevent you getting caught out and advice on what HSE field inspectors are looking for in our Health and Safety publications.
– Our selection of woodworking machinery safety cards.
– Health and Safety training – including machine refresher training, Health & Safety management qualifications and more.
– As a member you can also ring our Health and Safety helpline on 0844 209 2610.
– Our Health & Safety Hero Campaign resources include short videos you can show to your staff, presentations you can adapt to your own company's health & safety processes and safety essential checklists you can give to each member of staff. There will be a new topic launched each month.
