Firm fined £3,500 after West Bromwich worker's arm crushed
A demolition and excavation company has been fined after a worker was badly injured when his arm became trapped in an unguarded crushing machine.
The 33-year-old plant operator from West Bromwich was hurt when his right arm was drawn in between the rollers and conveyor belt at Great Barr-based Coleman and Company's site in Meriden, Warwickshire.
The worker suffered fractures to his right arm along with wrist injuries and bruising, and he later needed several skin grafts in hospital and has yet to return to work.
Solihull Magistrates' Court was told on Thursday that without the swift reaction of his colleagues who ran to his aid to stop the machine, the injured worker could have lost his life.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated the incident at the Birmingham firm's Cornetts End Lane site, on November 8 last year, and prosecuted the company for two separate breaches of safety legislation.
The HSE found the incident could have been prevented had the company noticed the machine's fixed guards had been either removed or lost, and had taken steps to replace them.
Coleman and Company Ltd of Shady Lane, Great Barr, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and section 11(1) of The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, and was fined £3,500 as well as being ordered to pay £1,114 in costs.
The company has previously been a six-time winner of the British Safety Council International Safety Award, last picking up the award in 2007, and also picked up the Network Rail Safety Award in 2010 recognising its 'commitment to health and safety' on one project.
Speaking after the hearing HSE inspector Karl Raw said: "Coleman and Company exposed workers to serious risk by failing to ensure that the workers were protected from dangerous moving parts of the machine by suitable guarding mechanisms."
