Worker's fingers chopped off at plastics firm

Date:

26 May 2010

Release No:

HSE/NW/30Roydon

A plastics recycling factory in St Helens has been fined £15,000 after a worker had parts of two fingers cut off by blades on a high-speed fan.

The employee, who has asked not to be named, suffered serious injuries to four fingers on his left hand including the partial amputation of two.

He was injured while trying to repair a drying unit at Roydon Granulation Ltd on Fishwicks Industrial Estate, Baxters Lane, on 19 May 2009. The company, of Fieldhouse Road in Rochdale, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for putting workers at risk.

The blades which injured the worker at Roydon Granulation

St Helens Magistrates' Court heard that the employee's fingers had come into contact with the high-speed fan, which rotates 1,450 times a minute, while he was trying to fix a problem. The HSE investigation concluded that the company's procedure for repairing the machine was inadequate.

HSE inspector Richard Clarke said: "One of the factory's employees suffered serious injuries because basic health and safety procedures were not followed. He has still not returned to work more than a year on from the incident.

"By law, the preferred solution would have been for the workers to switch off and lock off the power supply to the fan with padlocks. If this was not possible, then temporary guards should have been put in place. These or other equally effective measures were not taken.

"Sadly incidents like this are all too common. Factories must treat the safety of their workers as a top priority to prevent serious injuries or even deaths in the future."

Roydon Granulation pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was ordered to pay £4,347 towards the cost of the prosecution in addition to the fine at St Helens Magistrates' Court on 25 May.

There were 32 deaths and more than 22,000 serious injuries in the manufacturing sector in Great Britain last year. Information on improving safety is available at www.hse.gov.uk/manufacturing.

Notes 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 ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."
2. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk

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