Firm fined after worker's foot is crushed by heavy machinery

Date:

28 August 2009

Release No:

HSE/WM/334/2009

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning employers that adequate safeguards need to be put in place when dealing with heavy lifting after a worker in Staffordshire suffered a serious foot injury when a piece of machinery fell on him.

HSE has prosecuted Hotchkiss Ltd, a ducting manufacturing company, over the incident in Wombourne on 16 July last year. The company was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay £5,718 costs after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act at Stafford Magistrates Court yesterday (27 Aug).

The employee severed a toe and suffered broken and dislocated bones in his foot when a forming head fell on him. A HSE investigation found the company had failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the forming machine that should have identified the need for lifting equipment to be used when changing the forming heads.

Investigating inspector Wayne Owen said:

"It was clear the company had failed to ensure that the risk to those people who used the two flat oval machines at the premises were sufficiently assessed and that the risks were then properly controlled. This incident is the culmination of these failures.

"We see so many incidents like this where employees are working without proper systems or with insufficient training and supervision. Couple this with inadequate or unsuitable equipment, and it is only a matter of time before people are injured or worse."

For companies unsure about their health and safety obligations, the HSE produces a variety of publications. For more information visit the website at www.hse.gov.uk.

Note to editors:

1. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety".
2. Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: "Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of... the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work."

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR West Midlands.