De La Rue International Limited fined £300,000 after employee was caught in paper-making machine

De La Rue International Limited were fined £311,191 (inc.costs) after an employee suffered life changing injuries at their paper mill site near Bath.

The circumstances were:

• De La Rue International Limited had not provided a safe system of work for the removal of broken paper from the paper-making machine. 
• Specifically there was no safe system of work for removal of paper from the after-dryer section of the paper-making machine when the machinery was operated in reverse.
• On 16 March 2017, an employee was helping colleagues to remove paper from the machine.
• He was standing in the gap between the size press and the after-dryer section of the machine.
• A fixed guard had been removed.
• He expected the spar drum to come towards him.
• However, it moved in the opposite direction.
• By the time he realised this, the spar drum had turned and his head became trapped between a spar and the base of the fixed guard.
• He required a nine-hour operation in hospital for facial reconstruction.

The HSE inspector said:
“Those in control of work have a responsibility to devise safe methods of working and to provide the necessary information, instruction and training to their workers in the safe system of working. If a suitable safe system of work had been in place prior to the incident, the life changing injuries sustained by the employee could have been prevented.