Company Admits Safety Failings Over Incident

A manufacturer has been fined $10,000 and ordered to pay costs following an accident at work in which a man’s hand was crushed in a power press. The 23-year-old agency worker lost two fingers in the incident, when he was removing a completed part from a production line and the machine’s guards closed and trapped his right hand. In turn, the moving guards then activated the power press and led to his index and middle fingers being crushed to the extent that doctors had to amputate them. An investigation into the work accident by the Health and Safety Executive revealed that the guards had not been maintained correctly, while the company had not examined or tested the press when it was installed around a year before. Stephen Nye, a Partner and expert in accidents at work claims at Irwin Mitchell, said the incident raised many of the same concerns that he has seen in a number of cases in the past. He outlined: “This is another instance in which a man has suffered a serious injury which has had a significant impact on his life, essentially due to a work accident that could potentially have been prevented. “Employers have a duty to ensure that machinery and equipment used by workers is maintained correctly and also functioning correctly, and the consequences of failing to regularly assess such issues has been highlighted in this case. “This is not an isolated case however, as we act for many people who have suffered similar injuries due to safety failings in the workplace. It is vital that lessons are learned from this kind of incident and the proper maintenance leads to an overall reduction in incidents of this kind.”