Firm fined £1,000 after worker severed finger
A metal works firm has been fined £1,000 after a worker severed his finger in an unguarded machine.
P&D Group Services Ltd today said it had learnt lessons from the accident, which happened at its base off Old Bush Street in Brierley Hill.
Dudley Magistrates' Court heard how a 36-year-old worker from Rowley Regis had been operating machinery which folds metal strips into hollow tubes to form parts of a shutter.
When a dent appeared in the sheets, he tried to feel what was causing the problem, but his glove got caught and his finger pulled into a roller.
The injury was so serious he had to have the top of his finger amputated and was off work for seven weeks. He has since returned to the company, doing the same job.
Following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive, it was discovered the machine had been unguarded during the incident on September 25 last year.
At a hearing in Wednesday, the company was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £1,414 in costs after pleading guilty to a breach in work equipment regulations.
Health and Safety Executive inspector John Glynn told the court: "This was not an isolated incident on a single day. Lack of guarding had persisted over a period of time, meaning there was an inevitability of someone being injured at some point.
"This employee suffered a shocking and painful injury that was entirely preventable. It was P&D Group's responsibility to ensure work equipment was safe and that dangerous moving parts were guarded. For some time the company required staff to approach the danger area around the rollers to set up and adjust the machine during production runs, yet continuously failed to identify and address the matter of the missing guards."
He added: "Preventing access to dangerous parts of machinery is a legal requirement and there is ample guidance and industry standards to allow duty holders to achieve compliance with the law."
Today, a spokesman for P&D Group Services Ltd, which trades as Insulated Roller Shutter Projects, said there had been 'enormous' improvements made at the firm, which employs 17 people, since the incident. He said all machinery now had guards. "We have learnt from this incident," he said. "A great deal of improvements have been made to our machinery."
