Firm fined after 16-year-old worker's finger amputated

Date:

27 June 2012

Release No:

HSE/72/12

A West Midlands food production company has been fined after a 16-year-old worker had to have his finger amputated.

The teenager, who cannot be named, was clearing a blockage on a biscuit crumbing machine at Phoenix Brands Ltd in Bilston on 25 November 2011.

He reached too far into the hopper and his right hand was pulled into a screw conveyor, a machine which uses a rotating screw blade to break biscuits as they travel up a tube.

He injured a number of fingers but his middle finger was so badly damaged it had to be amputated.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought a prosecution against the firm after its investigation found that both the hopper and the screw conveyor were unguarded, and had been since the machine was bought several years earlier.

Wolverhampton Magistrates' Court was told that the worker, who is now 17, left the company following the incident as it was only intended to be a part-time job until he started a college plumbing course. He missed two months of the course but has since made good progress and is catching up with his peers.

Phoenix Brands Limited, of the Atlas Trading Estate, Cross Street, Bilston, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. Wolverhampton magistrates fined the company £7,000 with full costs of £4,000.

Speaking after today's hearing, HSE inspector David Evans said:

"To be injured so seriously just a few weeks into his working life has been profoundly upsetting for this young man. The incident was entirely avoidable. The risks of clearing blockages had not been properly identified. If they had been, workers would not have been able to access dangerous moving parts of machinery.

"The company has since fitted a guard. It is just a shame they did not do this before someone suffered life-changing 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.
   (2) The measures required by paragraph (1) shall consist of-
   1. the provision of fixed guards enclosing every dangerous part or rotating stock-bar where and to the extent that it is practicable to do so, but where or to the extent that it is not, then
   2. the provision of other guards or protection devices where and to the extent that it is practicable to do so, but where or to the extent that it is not, then
   3. the provision of jigs, holders, push-sticks or similar protection appliances used in conjunction with the machinery where and to the extent that it is practicable to do so, but where or to the extent that it is not, then
   4. the provision of information, instruction, training and supervision.

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