Firm fined after electrician suffers burns
A Tayside electrical company has been fined for safety failings after a worker suffered burns to his face, hands and arms while carrying out live electrical testing. Gordon Roberts, then aged 38, from Dundee, spent nine days in hospital following the incident on 2 December 2010. His employer, McGill Electrical Ltd, was prosecuted on 22 November after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Dundee Sheriff Court was told that Mr Roberts, along with colleagues, was undertaking the testing inside an electricity substation at the premises of a manufacturing company in Dundee. He had climbed a stepladder to remove bolted covers to gain access to the live conductors he was there to test. However, on manoeuvring one of the bolted covers back into position after the testing, a corner of the cover appears to have come into contact with live parts causing an electrical arc flashover.
His colleague heard a bang and a flash just before all the lights went out and the room filled with smoke. Mr Roberts, who was not wearing the correct protective equipment supplied to him, was thrown off the stepladder but was able to walk out of the substation unaided.
The manufacturing firm’s safety manager used snow that happened to be surrounding the substation in an attempt to cool Mr Robert’s burns before an ambulance arrived. Mr Roberts was treated in hospital for burns to his face, hands and arms. He made a full recovery and returned to work two months later.
The HSE investigation concluded that McGill Electrical Ltd had failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for the task of removing and replacing the bolted covers while the distribution boards were live, and had also failed to have in place a safe system of work by failing to ensure that the electricity supply to the distribution boards was de-energised during removal and replacement of the covers.
McGill Electrical Ltd of Harrison Road, Dundee, was fined £2,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Tissue maker fined after worker has fingers amputated
A major Leicester-based company has been fined after a worker had to have the tips of two fingers amputated after trapping them in badly-guarded machinery while trying to clear a blockage.
The 37-year-old employee of Sofidel UK Ltd, one of Europe’s largest tissue and paper towel manufacturers, was working on a paper converting machine when he suffered the injury on 26 September 2012. The incident, at the company’s premises on the Hamilton Industrial Estate, was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which found it had failed to properly guard the dangerous moving parts of the machine.
Leicester Magistrates’ Court was told on the 28 November that the worker placed his hand inside the converting machine to try and remove the tissue blockage on the belt and pulley drive of the conveyor.
His hand was trapped and the tips of two fingers on his left hand were so badly injured they had to be amputated. However, the man returned to work at Sofidel after three months on light duties, and resumed normal duties after five months.
HSE found there was no fixed guarding for the belt and pulley drive of the conveyor to prevent access to moving parts of the machine, which had recently been moved to the premises from another of the firm’s sites in Leicester.
Sofidel UK Ltd of Waterside Road, Hamilton Industrial Estate, Leicester, pleaded guilty to a single breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £712 in costs.
Castleford worker fears for future after losing fingers in machinery
A worker had two fingers pulled from their sockets as he cleaned a silo because of a badly-guarded machine.
Castleford man Kevin Sharp, 39, is now classed as 50 per cent disabled and has had ten operations on his right hand since the incident at plastic recycling firm Regain Polymers Ltd, in Allerton Bywater.
The incident, on 21 December 2012, was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which prosecuted the company for safety failings at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on 29 November 2013.
The court heard Mr Sharp had been asked to clean a silo that uses a large stirrer to blend plastic flake. Below the silo was a chute with a metal slide valve. However, a switch on the valve was broken and a piece of metal had been attached over one of the contacts of the switch. This meant the stirrer could rotate whilst the slide valve was open.
When Mr Sharp opened the valve to empty the silo, the chute was blocked with compacted flake. As he put his arm up into the chute to clear the blockage, his right hand made contact with the moving stirrer – two rotating angled blades.
His middle and ring fingers were pulled out, complete with tendons; the skin was torn from his index finger and the little finger was severely damaged. Surgeons were unable to reattach the fingers.
Mr Sharp has been told he is unlikely to be able to undertake manual work again.
HSE told the court that Regain Polymers, which employs around 100 workers at the Castleford site, had failed to make sure there was effective protection on the machine to prevent access by workers to dangerous moving parts.
Regain Polymers Ltd of Newton Lane, Allerton Bywater, Castleford, near Wakefield, was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £634 in court costs after admitting a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
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