Cardiff roof company fined after worker's crush injury
A metal roofing company has been prosecuted for safety failings after a worker suffered a serious wrist injury while operating production line machinery.
The worker was employed by the company to make metal roof panels at the company's Wentloog factory.
He was operating a machine that positions wooden blocks beneath packs of roof panels on the production line when some of the blocks became jammed in the machinery. Walking into the enclosure with the machine still in 'automatic' mode, he reached under the machine to reach the jammed bearers and free them.
However, once the blockage was removed, the machinery started up again and crushed his wrist between the bearer and the base frame.
He was taken to hospital where he underwent three operations to insert a metal plate into his wrist, and skin graft treatment to serious skin abrasions sustained in the incident. He was only able to return to work four months later.
The worker was able to gain access to the production line through a defective interlocked gate in the two-metre high perimeter fence that surrounded it. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive revealed the gate had been interfered with and tied open.
This was deemed to be common practice due to a high number of jams that occurred, with workers regularly passing the gate without correctly stopping and isolating the machine.
HSE prosecuted the company for failing to take effective measures to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery, and for not checking the guards or interlocks were in place at the time.
The company had previously pleaded guilty and was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,000.
Updated on 10/4/2011