Fire Protection Group and Chivas Brothers Limited each fined £50,000 after inspector was crushed by insufficiently isolated machine

Fire Protection Group and Chivas Brothers Limited were each fined £50,000 after an alarm inspector was crushed when machinery started during his activity.

The circumstances were:

• On 22 February 2017, an employee of Fire Protection Group (FPG) was working at Chivas Brothers Limited (CBL) undertaking a visual inspection of fire suppression systems at CBL’s bottling plant.
• FPG and CBL had duties to ensure that there was an appropriate exchange of important health and safety information in advance of, and during, the work activity. 
• They failed to ensure that all the systems on the Kardex Remstar Shuttle XP500 machine were isolated before removing the covers.
• Only part of the machine was isolated from power sources.
• Side panels that act as fixed guards preventing access to dangerous moving parts inside of the machines were removed so that the FPG employee could gain access inside to carry out the inspections.
• The FPG employee was crushed and trapped when the extractor device of the machine was activated. 
• He sustained crushing injuries to his right side.

The HSE inspector said:
“This injury was easily preventable. The risk should have been identified. Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures, such as permits to work when machinery is safely isolated, to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery.”