Animal feed firm in court over worker's hand injury

Date:

26 October 2011

Release No:

HSE/NW/58Dugdale

A Lancashire firm which produces animal feed has appeared in court after a worker's hand was trapped in machinery at a Clitheroe factory.

The 47-year-old worker from the town, who has asked not to be named, lost two fingers on his left hand in the incident. His employer, Dugdale Nutrition Ltd, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the injury at the factory at Bellman Mill in Salthill on 9 June 2009.

Accrington Magistrates' Court heard the worker had been trying to remove a blockage on the third floor of the factory when the machine was switched on by a worker in the control room on the ground floor.

The HSE investigation found the injured worker had been able to gain access to a 'chain and flight conveyor', used to transport animal feed through the factory, because the guard over it was not fixed in place.

The out-of-reach switch at the top of a pole

He had not used the isolator switch to cut the power to the machine as the switch was three metres above the ground and was difficult to reach.

Dugdale Nutrition Ltd pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay £3,614 in prosecution costs on 26 October 2011.

Speaking after the hearing, the investigating inspector at HSE, Matthew Tinsley, said:

"Sadly the employee at Dugdale Nutrition lost one finger in the machinery and had to have another one amputated in hospital.

"He should never have been put in a position where he was able to gain access to the chain and flight conveyor to clear a blockage while it was possible that the machine could be restarted.

"The company broke two health and safety laws by not providing a suitable guard and installing the isolator switch in an out-of-reach position. As a result, a worker has suffered a life-long injury."

The employee at Dugdale was one of more than 4,000 workers in the manufacturing industry who suffered a major injury while at work in 2009/10. Another 25 workers lost their lives. Information on health and safety in manufacturing is available at www.hse.gov.uk/manufacturing.

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. 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."
3. Regulation 19(1) of the same regulations states: "Every employer shall ensure that where appropriate work equipment is provided with suitable means to isolate it from all its sources of energy."

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