Barking firm fined for saw guard failings

The worker, who does not want to be named, needed a five-hour operation to repair the damage following the incident on 23 February 2012. He has been left with permanent tingling and bouts of numbness. Westminster Magistrates' Court heard the worker was using a horizontal band saw to cut down metal bars. He had climbed onto a bench at the back of the saw to undo clips and chains that held a bundle of bars together, but as he moved away he slipped and his right hand went into the machine. The cutting blade was unguarded at this point and it sliced into his hand. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) established that the system of work for cutting down the bars was unsafe because it required employees to work close to dangerous moving parts. The cutting blade could have been better guarded or other measures imposed to keep workers at a safe distance. Magistrates were told that the HSE served Kierbeck Thames with a Prohibition Notice nine months before the incident, in May 2011, after another horizontal band saw was found to be inadequately guarded. Kierbeck Thames pled guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.