Firm fined after incorrect machine set up caused injury to worker

Date:

1 October 2012

Release No:

HSE/E/97

An Essex packaging company has been fined for safety failings after a worker suffered a badly bruised hand because the machine he was working on had been incorrectly set up.

The 20-year old worker, who does not wish to be named, suffered serious bruising to his right hand and was off work for 8 days after it was pulled into a machine for making cardboard tubes.

Curran Packaging Company Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees following the incident at its East Tilbury factory in June 2011.

Basildon Magistrates' Court heard today (1 October) that had the machine been set up with a trip switch in the correct position it would have stopped before the operator's hand was drawn into a danger area.

They also heard that this failure to ensure machinery was adequately guarded wasn't an isolated incident.

Magistrates were told that there had been another incident four months previously involving another employee who suffered similar injuries. HSE's investigation found the company had failed to update the risk assessments for its other machines.

Curran Packaging Company Ltd, of Thames Industrial Estate, Princess Margaret Road, East Tilbury, was fined a total of £15,000 after pleading guilty of breaching section 2(1) Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was also ordered to pay £ 4,069 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Keith Waller said:

"Curran Packaging Company failed to take appropriate safety precautions on their machinery and a 20-year old employee suffered serious bruising to his hand as a result.

"The fact that they had a similar incident involving another employee just four months previously and still failed to update their risk assessment procedures shows a disregard for their employees' safety.

"All employers need to ensure that any machinery they use as part of their business is safe and correctly set up to protect their employees."

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent 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 Act 1974 confirms the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees, particularly the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health.

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