Two factory workers lose fingers after incidents
TWO men working in the factory of a bedding manufacturer had fingers amputated after ‘serious and avoidable’ incidents, the Health and Safety Executive has said after a prosecution.
Sartex Quilts and Textiles Ltd, based in Rochdale, has now been fined more than a quarter of a million pounds for breaches of workplace health and safety laws. The HSE said both employees were seriously injured during separate incidents at the company’s site at Castle Mill, Queensway, near Castleton.
In one incident in March 2020, a clamp on a machine came down, trapping a 32-year-old man’s left hand and causing a circular saw to move.
The saw was stopped by another worker who pressed the emergency stop button, but the HSE said the man had to have three fingers amputated from his left hand as a result. It was his first day working on the line and he had been instructed to clean the measuring wheel on a cutting machine.
He climbed onto the conveyer belt, said the HSE, but the cutting machine had not been properly isolated from all sources of power and the machine’s clamp came down.
In a statement, the 32-year-old man from Burnley said: “Prior to this incident, I was a healthy, happy and active person. At the time I had one very young son, now I have two children. I try not to expose my left hand too much to my children when I am playing with them or when they are in my company.
“I do not talk about the incident with my children. When I am out and about in public, I try to keep my injured hand out of the public view.”
A second man also working at the site was involved in an incident while operating a quilting machine in October, 2021.
The HSE said the 51-year-old, from Rochdale, had noticed a fallen casing and attempted to place it onto the back of the machine while it was being operated. However, his gloves became tangled, causing his right hand to be dragged in. He suffered cuts and crush injuries and the tips of two of his fingers to be amputated.
HSE inspector Elena Pickford described the injuries sustained by the workers as ‘serious and avoidable.’
The body, Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, said its subsequent investigation found Sartex Quilts and Textiles Ltd did not guard the machinery and did not implement suitable and sufficient procedures to isolate machinery from power.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
At Manchester and Salford magistrates’ court on February 14, it was fined £251,250 and ordered to pay £6,862.63 in costs.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Elena Pickford said: “These injuries were serious and avoidable, the risk should have been identified. Employers should make sure they properly assess and ensure that access to dangerous parts of machinery are prevented. Had these machines been adequately guarded and a safe isolating procedure been in place, these incidents could have easily been prevented.”
In a statement, the company said: “Sartex deeply regrets the incidents which occurred at its site in 2020 and 2021. We continue to support the colleagues who were injured and would again like to say sorry to them and their families. We co-operated fully with the Health and Safety Executives’ team of investigators as they carried out their work.
“We continue to strive to achieve the very best standards of health and safety and we are thankful to the court for recognising the improvements the company has made and the fact that both colleagues have returned to work for us following the incidents.”