Legal News

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has successfully prosecuted a Pontefract firm after a teenage worker employed as a temp at the site sustained serious injuries to his arm when he was dragged into machinery.

The 18-year-old from Sheffield was employed by an agency and had been working on contract intermittently for several months at leading glass recycling firm Reuse Collections Ltd in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

On 15 June, 2012, the company – which trades as Berryman – had assigned the worker the job of cleaning a machine which separates glass from general recycling waste.

The unnamed worker was cleaning the machine on the instructions of a supervisor. The machine was running and his left hand and arm were dragged into the machine between a rotating metal drum and a moving conveyor belt.

The employee sustained a serious fracture to his upper arm and surgeons had to remove bone from his hip and use metal rods to rebuild his arm.

A subsequent investigation by the HSE found that the machine had been completely unguarded and as such had offered easy access to dangerous moving parts.

HSE inspectors also found that Reuse Collections Ltd had no work system to ensure the machine was isolated and safely locked off before cleaning of the machinery commenced. The company’s cleaning policy relied on employees taking care they did not become trapped in machinery during cleaning.

On Thursday, 17 December at Wakefield Magistrates Court, Berryman of Lidgate Crescent, Langthwaite Business Park, South Kirkby, Pontefract in West Yorkshire admitted one breach of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £3,638 in full costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Bradley Wigglesworth said:

“There is no excuse for companies to operate machinery without protecting employees and other workers from the dangerous parts.

“The requirement for guarding is wellknown and recognised across industry –
not least because the risks are obvious.

“Had the machine had adequate guarding and a safe system of work implemented to isolate the machine, the serious and painful injury to this young and inexperienced worker could have been avoided.”

Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states:

“It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.”

Duncan Lewis Personal Injury Solicitors

Injuries sustained in accidents at work are eligible for compensation if the injury was the result of another party’s or employer’s negligence.

Accidents at work fall under the area of law known as personal injury and the sort of work accidents which might be eligible for compensation include:

• Agricultural accidents
• Work-related asbestos disease
• Construction site accidents
• Factory accidents
• Falls from height (eg scaffolding or unguarded or fragile roofs)
• Fork-lift accidents
• Industrial accidents (eg waste recycling plant accidents)
• Injuries from unguarded machinery
• Slips, trips and falls (eg on slippery floor surfaces).

Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors can advise on how to make a no win no fee personal injury claim for an accident in the workplace, including repetitive strain injury (RSI) claims – or catastrophic or life changing injuries sustained in a work accident, such as brain injury, amputation or fatal injuries to a loved one.

For legal advice on accident at work injuries, contact Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors on 020 7923 4020.