Unguarded section on recycling line claims another victim

Rochdale recycling company Anglo Recycling Ltd was fined £13500 (inc.costs) after an employee’s arm was dragged into unguarded machinery.

The circumstances were:

• The accident occurred on a carpet recycling line.
• There was a missing guard.
• The injured worker had brought the company’s attention to the missing rear guard but no action had been taken to address it.
• On 23 March 2016, the worker suffered a compound fracture when his arm was drawn into machinery and trapped between a conveyor and roller.

The HSE Inspector said:
“This case is a stark reminder of the consequences of a failure to adequately guard machinery and implement safe systems of work.”

The combination of exposed rollers and gloves causes loss of finger

A J Metal Products Limited was fined £25220 (inc.costs) after a worker lost their finger after it got caught whilst operating a machine used for bending metal.

The circumstances were:

• The incident occurred on a machine where there was unguarded access to in-running rollers.
• The injured person was wearing gloves.
• A glove on the injured person's hand was caught in the rollers, pulling his index finger and thumb in.
• Surgery couldn’t save the worker’s finger and it had to be amputated.

The HSE Inspector said:
“This incident could have been easily prevented had measures been taken to control the risk of workers’ hands being pulled into this machine. Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery.”

SSS comment: If gloves are worn near moving machinery, they must have low tensile strength so that they rip, rather than draw the hand in

Examples of good and bad practice within 100m of each other.

How to get it right. 

Drain closers available right next to drain

 

How to get it wrong. 

Lorry driver (in orange) standing within range of an item being lifted by forklift truck.

In this case, the load appears to be stable, but with something less stable, he'd be in the line of fire.

Europlast fined £66,000 after worker loses four fingers in unguarded machine.

Packaging company Europlast (Blackburn) Ltd was  fined £66,055 (inc.costs) after a worker’s hand became trapped in machinery.

The circumstances were:

• It was possible to reach dangerous parts of a bubble wrap machine.
• The HSE had prosecuted Europlast id 2012 for serious hand injuries in a similar machine.
• The arrangements for cleaning the machine were that is was done when it was running.
• On 11 August 2015, a worker was cleaning the machine when his left hand became trapped between rollers, causing four of his fingers to be severed. 
• The company failed to report the incident until nine months later, which significantly delayed investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and left other employees at risk.

The HSE inspector said:
“These were life-changing injuries that could have been prevented. Sadly, in this case lessons from previous incidents had not been learned.  Duty holders should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.”

Poor stacking practice

In this picture, long cardboard boxes straddle two standard pallets and it is the strapping round the boxes which keeps the pallets together.

Done once, this is poor, but having them stacked
three-high results in a very unstable stack.  

Only minor pressure causes it to wobble (audibly as well).

Associated British Ports was fined £674,688 after a 600 kg bag of fertiliser hit an employee

Associated British Ports was fined £674,688 (inc.costs) after a bag of fertiliser fell and struck an employee.

The circumstances were:

• The company had earlier incidents of bag spills and stack collapses at their Ipswich and King’s Lynn docks.
• However, the company continued to follow a practice of stacking 600kg flexible intermediate bulk container (FIBC) bags directly on top of one another.  
• The recognised industry standard is to stack them in a more stable pyramid fashion.
• On 16 May 2016, an employee  was removing pallets from the front of a stack and was struck by a bag as it fell.
• The incident caused him to sustain multiple fractures, a dislocated ankle and knee and back injuries, and he was unable to work for thirteen weeks.

The HSE inspector said
“This case highlights the importance of ensuring FIBC bags are stacked according to industry guidance. This incident could so easily have been avoided if the company had followed their own risk assessments and reviewed their systems following previous bag collapses.”

This is a good example of a bad design; a case of style over common sense.

The daylight running lights on this Nissan are a V on its side comprising very bright LEDs.
The indicators are much smaller an sit at the bottom of the V.
This means that the indicators are very indistinct.  
I had one of these Nissans facing me and wanting to turn right.  I could only just make out that the driver was actually signalling.