ADA Machining Services fined £24,952 after second accident on vertical boring machine

ADA Machining Services Ltd., was been fined £24,952 (inc. costs) after a worker’s hand was partially severed when it was caught in machinery.

The circumstances were:

• The accident was on a Richards 16ft vertical boring machine'
• There was inadequate guarding to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machinery
• There was an inadequate risk assessment for operating the vertical boring machine..
• It was custom and practice to walk on the rotating machine table during operation of the vertical boring machine.
• On 24 March 2021 an employee was operating the machine when he stepped on to the rotating table to check the internal boring cut 
• He slipped and fell on the table.
• On his third attempt to steady himself after slipping, his hand was drawn into the in-running nip, and he suffered a partially severed hand. 
• He remains unable to work.
• ADA Machining Services Ltd., had previously pleaded guilty of breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulation on 12 May 2010 for an entrapment accident on a vertical boring machine.
• HSE provided guidance on guarding these machines at that time so the company had been aware of the risks for a number of years and should have taken remedial action to prevent a second accident of the same nature happening again.

The HSE inspector said:
“This injury was easily prevented, and the risk should have been identified and eliminated when the company were given advice on guarding this machine by HSE 11 years ago. Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery.”