FIRM FINED £400K OVER SAFETY BREACH
IN BREACH OF HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT
A COMPANY has been fined £400,000 after an employee had to have an arm amputated when he was injured at work.
The 48-year-old lost his left arm after suffering the injury at SaintGobain Construction Products UK Ltd, in Barrow-upon-Soar, which designs, manufactures and distributes construction materials.
Loughborough Magistrates’ Court heard how the worker, who had been with the firm for 29 years, was seriously injured when a rock handling belt failed at the company’s plant in Barrow on August 13, 2017.
The firm has since said it was “deeply saddened and shocked” by the incident.
The hearing was told that two employees had been clearing rock that had built up around the belt.
As the belt had become so compacted, it was difficult to remove by hand.
Both men went to the isolator end of the belt and removed the local isolation, with the guards still removed, and pressed the “start/ stop” button.
On checking the tail-end of the drum, they saw it had not become cleared.
One of the men went to the opposite side of the tail-end drum to remove the rock and the pair could no longer see each other. His colleague pressed the start/stop button again while his colleague’s arm was near to the rotating drum and his arm was drawn in.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found there was no risk assessment or safe system of work in place for clearing rock safely from tail-end drums.
Saint-Gobain Construction Products UK Limited, of Binley Business Park, Coventry, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and has been fined £400,000 and ordered to pay costs of £12,945.62.
Speaking after the case, HSE inspector Michelle Morrison said: “This injury could easily have been prevented, had the risk been identified.
“Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery.”