November 5th, 2009
A food manufacturing company has been ordered to pay out £94,523 in fines and court costs after a worker suffered a severe injury to his hand.
Ludmila Jurkevica, 27, from King’s Lynn, was attempting to clear a blockage in a packaging machine when three of his fingers got crushed.
Tulip Packaging of Warwick was fined £65,000 and ordered to pay costs of £29,523 over the injury, which occurred in November 2007.
Speaking after the verdict at Norwich Crown Court, Health and Safety Executive inspector Steven Gill said: "This was a nasty incident which could have been avoided had the company checked how safe the machinery was and taken precautions to protect staff.
"Machines like these can be incredibly dangerous and cause serious injury."
In a similar incident heard in court last month, Orica UK of Wigan was fined £10,000 after an employee lost two fingers when trying to remove a blockage from a machine.
Tags: Food Manufacturer, Food Manufacturing, Health And Safety, Health And Safety Executive, Lost, Manufacturing Company, Norwich Crown Court, Packaging Machine, Two Fingers, Warwick, Wigan
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October 15th, 2009
A pet food manufacturing company has been fined £10,000 after one of its employees was crushed to death in a piece of machinery.
John O’Connor, 38, had been working at the Butcher’s Pet Care factory in Northamptonshire and entered a palletising machine to clear a blockage.
However, when he moved the can of pet food that had become jammed, the fully-automated machine restarted.
Mr O’Conor was pulled into its workings and was crushed to death.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that staff should not have been able to access the moving parts of machines, which should all have had guards in place.
Butcher’s operations director Philip Thompson was fined for breaching work equipment regulations and was ordered to pay a fine and compensation.
HSE inspector Neil Craig said: "This was far from being an isolated incident. The unfenced gap between the stair rails had been there for nearly two years."
According to HSE statistics, there were 35 fatal injuries to workers in manufacturing between 2007 and 2008.
Tags: Butcher, Conor, Fatal Injuries, Food Manufacturing, Gap, Health And Safety, Health And Safety Executive, Hse, Manufacturing Company, Moving Parts, Neil Craig, Northamptonshire, O Connor, Operations Director, Pet Care, Pet Food, Philip Thompson, Stair Rails, Statistics
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April 9th, 2009
A man who fell down some steel steps and badly injured his arm is to receive compensation.
Brian Corish, 47, was self-employed but had been subcontracted out to European Metal Recycling’s Plymouth site in January 2006, Plymouth newspaper the Herald reports.
He fell down the flight of steps and seriously fractured his arm, leaving him in need of surgery and unable to work for two months.
Mr Corish needed a steel plate in his arm and may have to have more surgery in the future.
He took legal action against his subcontractors and although the firm denied liability, it agreed to a compensation payout of £15,000 to cover the victim’s lost earnings and pain.
According to the Health and Safety Executive, almost 11,000 employees suffered a serious injury as a result of a slip of trip in the workplace last year.
The most at risk industries were found to be construction, postal services and food manufacturing.
Tags: Corish, Earnings, Flight Of Steps, Food Manufacturing, Health And Safety, Health And Safety Executive, Plymouth, Postal Services, Recycling, Risk, Steel Plate, Steel Steps, Subcontractors, Welder
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