Worker loses finger on damaged machinery, emphasising importance of NEBOSH courses

Category: NEBOSH National General Certificate
Wednesday 3rd of March 2010

A firm has been fined after one of its workers lost a finger while using machinery that it knew to be defective.

Students on NEBOSH courses may be aware of ensuring that all equipment is safe to use before work can be carried out, something that Tanfield Metal Spinners in Washington failed to do, resulting in a £1,056 at Sunderland Magistrates' Court.

The incident happened when the worker was attempting to reset the gear cog on the drive machinery of a metal spinning machine.

Gears had been slipping out of place for some time and the guard had been removed, which resulted in the worker's glove becoming trapped in the moving parts, resulting in a lost finger and serious damage to another.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Dr Dave Shallow said: "They should also have ensured that a guard was in place at all times to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machine."

According the HSE, there were 131,895 non-fatal accidents reported under RIDDOR in 2008-09, a rate of 502.2 injuries per 100,000 employees across all industries.

Posted by Adam Lewis

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