Missing guards and interlocks cause loss of part of 2 fingers

Rose Tissues, an Oldham-based tissue manufacturer has been fined  £18,000 (inc.costs) after an employee lost the tops of two fingers in machinery.

The circumstances were:

• Rose Tissues Ltd, processes and prints kitchen roll and toilet paper.
• 2 of the guards on the machine on which the accident occurred had been removed at least a year before the incident. 
• Interlock switches had been deliberately bypassed to allow the machine to carry on running.
• There were no checks carried out on the machine to make sure the guards were in place.
• On 17 May 2012, an employee trying to stop paper sticking to a seven-metre-wide print roller by attempting to clean it with a cloth while the machine was operating.
• As he did this, the cloth became trapped between two rotating rollers, dragging in his right hand with it. 
• He spent four days in hospital undergoing surgery to his hand, but lost the tops of two fingers.
• Following the injury, the guards were found in a storage container in the factory and reinstated.

The HSE Inspector said:

“The guards were fitted to the machine for a reason and there’s simply no excuse for two of them to be missing for over a year. Rose Tissues Ltd had deliberately over-ridden essential electrical locks and cut out switches to allow the machines to run without the guards. The risk of workers’ hands being dragged in between two rollers is well known in the printing industry, but the company failed to carry out checks on its machines to make sure guards were in place. As a result, an employee has suffered an injury to his hand that will affect him for the rest of his life.”