Flooring firm fined after worker dragged into machinery

Date:

28 February 2013

A flooring manufacturer has been found guilty of safety failings after an employee was dragged into an unguarded machine at its factory in Greater Manchester.

Polyflor Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident at its plant on Radcliffe New Road in Whitefield on 17 May 2011.

During a four-day trial at Manchester Crown Court, the jury heard that the male worker, who has asked not to be named, was working on a nightshift when a conveyor belt became jammed.

Maintenance workers were unable to repair the fault and guards from the machine were removed so that it could continue to operate. The injured worker was using a spanner to try to stop the belt rubbing when he was pulled into the machine.

The 43-year-old from Sale had to be cut free and suffered a broken arm. He needed seven weeks off work to recover.

Polyflor Ltd, of Hollinhurst Road in Radcliffe, was today (28 February) found guilty of a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 for failing to ensure routine maintenance work could be carried out safely on the machine.

The company, which manufactures flooring for offices, sports centres and schools, was fined £7,500 and ordered to pay £34,000 in prosecution costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Emily Osborne said:

"The Polyflor employee was lucky to escape with a broken arm. His injuries could have been much worse.

"The company should never have allowed workers to be put at risk by letting them carry out maintenance work to the machine while it was still operating.

"It has since installed a new safety system on the conveyor belt which makes it impossible for it to be run when the guards have been removed."

Around 10% of British workers are employed by the manufacturing industry but the sector accounts for a quarter of all workplace deaths. The latest figures show 31 people were killed at work in 2011/12, and nearly 3,500 major injuries were reported. Information on improving safety 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 22 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states: "Every employer shall take appropriate measures to ensure that work equipment is so constructed or adapted that, so far as is reasonably practicable, maintenance operations which involve a risk to health or safety can be carried out while the work equipment is shut down, or in other cases maintenance operations can be carried out without exposing the person carrying them out to a risk to his health or safety."

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by the Regional News Network