Company fined £230,000 after worker loses hand

Francis Alexander Personal Injury Solicitors Stockport are a practice dedicated to pursuing claims only for the injured person (or the claimant) in accident and disease claims.

A man who lost his right hand in an accident at work has seen the major European food business that he works for fined £230,000. the company who produce raw and cooked chicken products were fined after two incidents at their Suffolk factory.

The man who was helping an employee clean equipment had his hand pulled into two rotating cogs and crushed. A safety guard had been removed from the machinery.

Only a month later, a fork lift truck driver was left in charge of a pre-slaughter area for chickens. He entered an enclosure to clear the blockage in the system when his arm was trapped and broken. A pass by system had been fitted by the company to over ride a safety control to stop such accidents from happening.

The company admitted two counts under the Health and Safety at work etc Act 1974 when charged by and prosecuted by the Health and Safety executive (HSE) and was fined a total of £230,000 and ordered to pay costs of £24,350.

After the hearing an HSE Inspector said, “Both these incidents were wholly avoidable. The employees were failed by the company’s lack of proper training, inadequate assessments of risks, absence of safe working practices and effective measures stopping access to dangerous equipment. One of them will have to live with the consequences of someone else’s mistakes for the rest of his life. The HSE will not hesitate to take companies, big or small, to court to seek tough penalties when it finds them taking a lax attitude to their workers safety.

Francis Alexander Personal Injury Manchester is a firm of solicitors specialising in compensation claims, accident claims and conveyancing transactions.