A timber mouldings manufacturer – Dresser Mouldings (Rochdale) Limited – has been fined after one of its apprentices lost two fingers while carrying out his duties.
Trafford Magistrates’ Court heard that the 16-year-old apprentice had been working with an experienced colleague on a machine at the company’s Station Yard Sawmill.
However, when a piece of wood jammed in the moulding machine, and would not feed through properly, it was opened in an attempt to unblock it.
The teenager was helping a colleague to adjust the machine when his gloved right hand caught on the rotating central blade.
He lost his middle finger and part of his thumb, as well as sustaining other injuries to his hand.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company had not taken measures to prevent access to the dangerous parts of the machinery.
Dresser Mouldings Limited was served with a fine of £18,000, with costs of £844.50, after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
HSE Inspector Emily Osborne, said: “This incident could have been easily prevented if the company had suitable measures in place to ensure workers did not come into contact with the rotating blade on the machine.
“In this case the machine should have been switched off.
“There was no safe system of work in place for the task as well as a lack of instructions and training to ensure workers knew how to carry out the task safely.”
For more information regarding the safe maintenance of manufacturing machinery, please see: http://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/.