Aerospace firm fined after worker suffers severe hand injuries

Date:

10 May 2011

Release No:

HSE/EM/184/11

An aerospace firm has been fined after a Leicestershire worker suffered severe and permanent hand and wrist injuries.

The 53-year-old worker from Loughborough, who has asked not to be named, had to have three fingers and his thumb amputated after his left hand was crushed in a cooling press at Meggitt Aerospace's site in Ashby Road, Shepshed, on 10 May last year.

He was hospitalised for several weeks and has not been able to return to work.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which investigated the incident, today told Loughborough magistrates that the worker had been making aircraft components and was in the process of removing a round mould without handles from the press.

As he did so, the bottom part of the hydraulic press (known as a platen) moved up, trapping his hand.

After today's hearing, HSE inspector Dr Richenda Dixon said:

"The incident was completely preventable. Reaching into the danger zone between powered platens is inherently unsafe and there is foreseeable risk of crush injuries to the hand or arm.

"The press was one of a bank of a dozen, for which there were no individual controls. All 12 were old and had not been well maintained. In addition, the mould being used had no handles to help with its removal so there was no safe system of work in place for unloading the presses.

"The company simply did not appreciate the risks this machinery posed to the wellbeing of its workforce. As a result a man has suffered a life-changing injury and has been unable to perform everyday tasks ever since."

Meggitt Aerospace Ltd, of Atlantic House, Aviation Park West, Bournemouth International Airport, Christchurch, Dorset, pleaded guilty to breaching section2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £6,758.

Notes to editors

1. 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
2. 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."

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