Managing safely courses news: Steel firm fined following leg injury

Category: IOSH Managing Safely
Thursday 4th of March 2010

A steel firm has been fined after an incident in which a worker was injured after being struck by moving machinery.

Students on managing safely courses may be surprised to note that the worker involved was a team leader, showing that sometimes accidents can happen to even the most experienced employees.

David Harrison suffered leg injuries when attempting to remove a jam in machinery at Corus UK's Skinningrove factory that required the controls to be operated by anther member of the team.

The operator was unable to see Mr Harrison and was relying on a third employee to provide directions, which worked unsuccessfully and resulted in serious injuries to his right leg.

A fine of £5,000 plus costs were imposed on the firm by Teesside Magistrates' Court, with Health and Safety Executive inspector Bruno Porter, stating that Corus had "failed to install a full safe isolation system, which had been identified as necessary prior to the incident".

Last year, 1.2 million people in the UK stated they were suffering from an illness which was either caused or made worse by their job.

Posted by Sam Lowther

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