Worker lost finger in wood planing machine

Date:

26 June 2012

Release No:

LSE/121/12

A Hampshire glazing company has been fined for safety breaches after a worker lost part of a finger in a woodworking machine at its factory in Aldershot.

Norbert Pietrzkiewicz's little finger on his right hand was drawn into a cutting block rotating at 7,000 rpm as he worked on reducing the thickness of lengths of timber at the Total Installations Ltd factory on 18 February last year.

The rotating blades of the cutting block shaved down his finger resulting in it being amputated just below the first joint.

The company was prosecuted at Aldershot Magistrates' Court today (26 June) after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found it had failed to ensure adequate safeguards were in place to prevent workers from coming in contact with dangerous parts of machinery.

The court was told that Mr Pietrzkiewicz, of Aldershot, was using a planer-thicknesser to work on three-metre lengths of timber. The machine had been set up by an untrained operative resulting in wood shavings blocking the revolving knife block. At the time of the incident Mr Pietrzkiewicz was sweeping shavings from the table with his hand and his glove was drawn into the rotating block.

Total Installations Ltd, of North Lane, Aldershot, pleaded guilty to two breaches of health and safety legislation. It was fined a total of £12,000 and ordered to pay £3,791.50 in costs.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Alec Ryan said:

"The powered cutting block of planers is a well-known and well-documented hazard in the industry. The dangerous parts of these machines must be properly guarded at all times, guidance about this has been in existence for many years.

"Total Installations Limited failed in its duty of care to its employees by not considering the risks involved and acting to ensure there were safeguards in place to protect workers against accessing dangerous parts. This should have included the necessary training for the use of this machine.

"If the company had carried out an adequate risk assessment of the work, its employees would not have been put at risk and in Mr Pietrzkiewicz's case painfully injured."

HSE statistics show there were 25 deaths in the manufacturing sector in Great Britain during 2010/11 with more than 3,700 major injuries and a further 13,700 less serious injuries.

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 in accordance with paragraph (2) which are effective-
   1. to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar; or
   2. 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 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and the risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking, for the purpose of identifying the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions.

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