Sister companies and the machine manufacturer were fined after finger amputation.

Postpack Limited and Damasco UK Limited were each fined £5,152 (inc.costs) and DIG Corrugated Machinery Limited fined £10029 (inc.costs) because of an injury resulting in amputation.

The circumstances were:

• Postpack and Damasco are sister companies.
• DIG Corrugated Machinery had supplied 5 flat bed die cutting machines, all with inadequate guards.
• A worker using one of these machines caught  his hand under the rotating main roller.
• The fingers and thumb of his left hand were crushed, leading to their amputation.
• Postpack and Damasco were fined under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations. .
• DIG Corrugated Machinery Limited were fined under Section 6 of the Health and Safety at Work  Act.

The HSE inspector commented:
“Those supplying machinery have a duty to ensure that it is safe. Purchasers and users of machinery must assess the equipment that they purchase and ensure that it is adequately guarded and that they have appropriate safe systems of work in place. If the flat-bed die cutter had been adequately guarded, then the life changing injuries sustained by the employee could have easily been prevented.”

Director fined for ignoring 4 improvement notices

The director of a woodworking company was fined £8,488 (inc. costs) and given a 12-month community order for failing to comply with Enforcement Notices

The circumstances were:

• Classical Joinery Group Limited (now dissolved) had been served with four improvement notices.
• These related to controlling health risks associated with the use of hazardous substances and controlling fire and explosion risks associated with the spraying of a flammable substance.
• Peter John Gittins was the sole director of the company and, by his consent or connivance, Classical Joinery Group Limited had failed to comply with all of the Improvement Notices served.

The HSE inspector  said
“We do not tolerate disregard for health and safety and consider the non-compliance of HSE Enforcement Notices as a serious offence.  In this case, Mr Gittins chose to flagrantly ignore the support, guidance and warnings from HSE to assist his compliance with the law; in doing so he put people at risk.”

MK Illumination fined £61,000 after forklift truck driver was killed when his forklift truck overturned after striking a beam

Lighting manufacturer MK Illumination (UK) Ltd., was fined £61,240 (inc.costs) after an employee was fatally injured when the forklift truck he was driving struck an overhead steel beam.

The circumstances were:

• The traffic routes on site required forklift trucks to travel under a number of overhead structural beams.
• There was only had a small clearance gap between the mast of the trucks at their lowest setting and the beams. 
• There were no hazard markings to highlight these overhead obstructions.
• On 14 June 2019, an employee was operating a forklift truck to move pallets when the mast of the forklift truck hit a low overhead structural beam.
• This caused the truck to overturn. 
• The employee was trapped underneath the roll cage and received fatal crush injuries.

The HSE inspector said: 
“The company’s system of work was not safe. With the forklift trucks operating within such tight margins, the company simply relied on the assumption it’s employees would always remember to lower the forks to their lowest position whilst travelling underneath the overhead beams. 
MK Illumination (UK) Ltd not only failed to physically mark the overhead beams in a conspicuous way to provide the forklift truck operators with a prominent warning of the limited headroom, but the company also failed to undertake a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the traffic routes. When this was done after the incident, the revised traffic routes avoided the low overhead beams altogether.”

Custom Insulation Ltd fined £20,000 after worker loses hand in an inadequately guarded press

Custom Insulation Ltd ., a manufacturer of thermal and acoustic insulation panels was fined £20,633 (inc.costs).after a worker’s hand was severed in a roller press at their site in Burton-on-Trent.

The circumstances were:

• The guarding roller presses including that involved in the incident was inadequate. 
• There were no checks being carried out to make sure that the guards related interlocks were functioning as designed. 
• The interlock trips were not working.
• On 7 August 2018, a worker’s hand got drawn into a roller press used for cutting out panels.
• The press was fitted with a guard and interlocking trips which, had they been working, would have prevented this incident.

The HSE inspector said:
“This incident could so easily have been avoided by simply identifying control measures and safe working practices and having systems in place to monitor their continued effective operation.  Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.”

Coldconnection Limited fined £14,928 after ignoring improvement notices for non-functional or defeated interlocks

Food manufacturing company Coldconnection Limited was fined £14,928 (inc. costs) after repeated failures to maintain safety devices on its food processing machinery.

The circumstances were:

• On three separate occasions between July 2008 and March 2016, HSE inspectors visiting the premises of Coldconnection Limited found multiple food processing machines that had non-functional or defeated interlock safety devices. 
• Notices were served on each occasion, requiring the company to remedy the defects.
• On a fourth visit in August 2019, the same issues were found again.

The HSE inspector said:
“While HSE would prefer to engage with businesses proactively through alternative enforcement tools, we can and will bring action through the courts where businesses are found to put their employees at unnecessary risk through repeated contraventions of health and safety law.”

Egger fined £910,000 after lorry driver was killed by a shovel loader

 Egger (UK) Limited was fined £910,000 after a self-employed lorry driver was killed making a routine delivery of recycled wood.

The circumstances were:

• There were a high level of vehicle movements in Egger's yard and previous near misses.
• Egger's risk assessments for workplace transport were not suitable or sufficient. 
• This resulted in a failure to identify that pedestrians, including delivery drivers, were at risk of being struck by moving vehicles in the yard.
• Consequently, the company failed to implement appropriate measures to control that risk, including the provision of designated pedestrian walkways.
• On 3 October 2017, the driver of an articulated vehicle was standing on open ground at the rear of his vehicle's trailer.
• He was struck by a wheeled shovel loader operating in the yard.

The HSE inspector said:
“The risks to pedestrians where vehicles are operating is well known. This incident could so easily have been avoided had the company identified the risks and put straightforward control measures and safe working practices in place. Had they done so the delivery driver would still be alive.  Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.”