Aeroplane firm in court over Lancashire worker's injuries

Date:

4 November 2010

Release No:

HSE/NW/62Callender

A Lancashire company, which manufactures parts for aeroplanes, has been sentenced after a worker's left hand was badly injured by a machine.

Callender (Lancashire) Aeropart Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after the employee's hand came into contact with a rotating blade in a milling machine at its site on Altham Industrial Estate on 17 July 2009.

The 28-year-old from Oswaldtwistle severed a tendon, broke his little finger and badly cut his ring finger. He required an operation to reattach the tendon and needed physiotherapy to regain movement in his little finger.

The unguarded machine which caused the worker's injuries

The worker, who has asked not to be named, was cutting a metal part for a fan in a jet engine when the incident happened. He reached across machine to retrieve the metal part he had just cut, but the blade was still moving.

Accrington Magistrates' Court heard that the cutting tool on the machine was not fitted with a guard, despite the issue being raised in a risk assessment carried out by the company 16 months earlier.

Callender (Lancashire) Aeropart Ltd admitted breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 by failing to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery.

The company, of Metcalf Drive in Altham, was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £3,996 towards the cost of the prosecution on 3 November 2010.

David Myrtle, the investigating inspector at HSE, said:

"The injuries this worker suffered were nasty but they could have been a lot worse. He was lucky not to lose one or more of his fingers.

"The risk assessment, carried out by the company more than a year earlier, had identified the machine as being dangerous and needing a guard. But Callender failed to make sure that an appropriate guard was used.

"Unfortunately even the most experienced machine operators can have a lapse in concentration. The company should have made sure a fixed guard had been installed to prevent injuries."

Last year, 35 workers lost their lives and nearly 26,000 suffered serious injuries in the manufacturing industry in Great Britain. Information on improving safety is available at www.hse.gov.uk/manufacturing.

Notes to editors

1. Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states: "Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken...which are effective to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar, or to stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone."
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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