Firm fined £2400 after factory worker injured

Date:

02 February 2010

Release No:

NE/038/10

A Teesside food firm has been fined £2,400 after a worker's hand was trapped between the rollers of a cooling conveyor while he was cleaning it.

The Baked Snacks Co Limited, of Imperial Way, South Bank, Middlesbrough, was today (2 February) also ordered to pay costs of £2,000 and a victim surcharge of £15 at Teesside Magistrates' Court after it pleaded guilty of two breaches of The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

The court heard how on 9 October 2008, the 22-year-old man was working as a mixing operative at the company's factory, where it produces baked snacks. His duties included cleaning his work area and other areas of the production line, among them the cooling conveyors.

The worker was cleaning the cooling conveyor at a point where there was no guarding of an in-running nip while the machinery was running. His right hand became trapped between two rollers and was badly injured.

After the case, HSE Inspector Bruno Porter, said:

"It appears that at the time of the incident, cleaning work was often done while the conveyor belts were still running, including areas that were not adequately guarded.

"This was a straightforward case of the company failing to address the risks arising from normal operation of this food factory. Simple, standard guarding of a dangerous piece of machinery should have been in place to prevent this nasty accident.

"In addition, there must be adequate information and instruction for safe operation of the plant which there was not in this case. Where workers do not have English as their first language, such as in this case, employers must make doubly sure all personnel really do understand how to work safely and what is expected of them."

Notes to editors

1. The Baked Snacks Co Limited pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment 1998 in which it failed to ensure all its employees had adequate information and instructions on the use of work equipment (Reg 8) and had failed to ensure measures were taken which were effective to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery (Reg 11)

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