Tissue maker fined after worker’s fingers amputated
1 min read
A major Leicester-based company has been fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £712 in costs after a worker had to have the tips of two fingers amputated after trapping them in badly-guarded machinery while trying to clear a blockage.
The 37-year-old employee of tissue and paper towel manufacturer Sofidel UK was working on a paper converting machine when he suffered the injury on 26 September, 2012.
The incident, at the company's premises on the Hamilton Industrial Estate, was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which found it had failed to properly guard the dangerous moving parts of the machine.
Leicester Magistrates' Court was told today (28 Nov) that the worker placed his hand inside the converting machine to try and remove the tissue blockage on the belt and pulley drive of the conveyor.
His hand was trapped and the tips of two fingers on his left hand were so badly injured they had to be amputated. The man returned to work at Sofidel after three months on light duties, and resumed normal duties after five months.
HSE found there was no fixed guarding for the belt and pulley drive of the conveyor to prevent access to moving parts of the machine, which had recently been moved to the premises from another of the firm's sites in Leicester.
Sofidel UK of Waterside Road, Hamilton Industrial Estate, Leicester pleaded guilty to a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
