County Durham firm fined after worker's fingers severed

Date:

3 August 2011

Release No:

NE/083/11

A County Durham firm has been fined £10,500 after a worker had three fingers severed while using a bandsaw.

John Houston, 39, from Ferryhill, was working as a contractor for Derek Parnaby Cyclones International Ltd, which manufactures and installs mineral processing and effluent treatment systems and equipment.

Mr Houston was working at the company's head office in Chilton where he was using a horizontal metal cutting bandsaw to cut down pieces of steel to make a frame. There was no safety guard in place and his left hand came into contact with the moving blade, severing three of his fingers.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought the prosecution after investigating the incident which happened on 22 April 2010.

Darlington Magistrates' Court heard that Mr Houston had to undergo ten hours of surgery as doctors attempted, unsuccessfully, to re-attach one of his fingers. He was in hospital for a week.

Mr Houston had been managing director of his own company, AJL Safenet Ltd, which manufactured and installed metal flooring, and had been working as a contractor for Derek Parnaby Cyclones International Ltd during quiet periods. AJL Safenet Ltd has now ceased trading as Mr Houston has been unable to return to work.

The court was told that Derek Parnaby Cyclones International Ltd had also allowed its employees to operate another horizontal metal cutting bandsaw without the required adjustable blade guard despite having been given advice from HSE inspectors in 2008 on what safeguards were required when using such equipment.

Derek Parnaby Cyclones International Ltd, of Avenue 1, Chilton Industrial Estate, Chilton was fined a total of £10,500 and ordered to pay £3,266.60 in costs after it pleaded guilty to one breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and one breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

After the case, HSE Inspector Cain Mitchell, said:

"This was an entirely avoidable incident which resulted in Mr Houston suffering a life changing injury to his hand and has led to his own company going out of business. The bandsaw should not have been used without the correct guarding to prevent access to the moving blade.

"Preventing access to dangerous parts of machinery with the use of suitable guards is a simple, but vital precaution to help ensure the safety of workers.

"In this case, the bandsaw used by Mr Houston had been in use without a suitable guard for some months while a second saw had been identified by Inspectors as having no guard in place some two years earlier. However, despite this warning, the company failed to take any action putting its workers at risk of injury."

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. http://www.hse.gov.uk/
2. HSE Inspector Cain Mitchell is available for interviews upon request. Please note Mr Houston does not wish to do any media interviews.
3. Derek Parnaby Cyclones International Ltd was fined £7,000 for breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, which 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 not in his employment who may be affected thereby, are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."
4. Derek Parnaby Cyclones International Ltd was fined £3,500 for breaching Regulation 11(1)(a) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 which 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."
5. The court also ordered Derek Parnaby Cyclones International Ltd to pay a separate £15 victim surcharge, the proceeds of which will be spent on services for victims and witnesses.

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