Nuneaton Magistrates' Court heard that the 60-year-old machinist from Bedworth was machining a piece of nylon when his overalls got tangled in a spindle moulder at Nuneaton Precisions on 18 September 2013.
As well as breaking two bones in his neck, the incident left him with a fractured right shoulder and a split ear which required stitches and plastic surgery. He was in hospital for eight days and off work for ten months. He has since returned to work for the company.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the interlocks on the machine had been altered and left totally ineffective. The spindle moulder, which spins to cut material, should have been behind closed doors but the first lock on the door had been removed and put in the lock on the other side, fooling the machine into thinking the circuit was complete and it was safe to operate.
Nuneaton Precisions, of Veasey Close, Attleborough Fields Industrial Estate, Nuneaton, was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £1,252 costs after pleading guilty to a breach of Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
After the hearing HSE inspector Elizabeth Hornsby said: "This was an horrific incident that left a man with multiple serious injuries. It was also an incident that could and should have been prevented.
"It is a basic premise of health and safety that workers should not be able to come into contact with dangerous moving parts of machinery. By failing to ensure that the interlocks were maintained, workers were put at risk, and one could have very nearly paid with his life."
