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Engineering firm fined £16,000 after employee loses toes (17 March 2015)

Date: 17/03/2015
Duncan Lewis, Personal Injury Solicitors, Engineering firm fined £16,000 after employee loses toes

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has successfully prosecuted a Kent engineering firm after an employee lost four toes and broke five other toes after a sheet of metal fell on him.

On 17 February 2014, engineer Anton Hunter, 20 from Sheerness – an employee at G&P Machine Shop Ltd in Sheerness – was helping a colleague unload a delivery of fabricated steel sheets at a nearby site, when a 700kg sheet became dislodged from a magnet and fell directly on his feet.

Mr Hunter’s big toe and the next two on his right foot were sliced off and all the toes on his left foot were fractured. Since the incident, Mr Hunter has undergone surgery to amputate the second toe on his left foot after his big toe moved position following surgery.

Mr Hunter has since returned to work in a reduced capacity and is still re-learning how to walk.

An HSE investigation into the incident found that Mr Hunter and a colleague had unloaded two smaller metal sheets successfully – but a third had become detached from the magnet and fallen.

The two men thought the problem was the cloth around the magnet, so they removed it and started unloading the larger 700kg sheets. One lift was achieved, but the second failed mid-way – and the sheet slipped from the magnet just as Mr Hunter jumped down from the back of the delivery vehicle to help guide the sheet.

HSE investigators identified that the magnet – which had been on hire to G&P Machine Shop for a month – was not designed for the size and weight of the metal sheets involved in the delivery. Both the small and the large sheet were 12mm depth – whereas instructions for the magnet stated that it was only suitable for sheets more than 20mm in depth and the maximum safe working load (SWL) was 400kg.

On Thursday, 12 March at Maidstone Magistrates’ Court, G&P Machine Shop – of Argent Road, Queensborough, Sheerness in Kent – was fined £16,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,036 after admitting a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Rob Hassell said:

“Anton Hunter – a young engineer – had his life put on hold after suffering a debilitating injury that may impair his ability to walk for the foreseeable future.

“The incident could have been prevented if G&P Machine Shop had carried out suitable checks to ensure the lift was within the operating capacities of the magnet.

“Instead, it seems that in an attempt to improve deliveries, an entirely inappropriate piece of lifting equipment was chosen.

“Companies should ensure the equipment they want to use is fit for its intended purpose – manuals for lifting devices are available to download or direct from the makers.

“The safe working load of lifting equipment is a maximum capacity in optimum conditions – any deviation needs to be investigated and tested.”

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