Top company fined £5,000 for worker's personal injury
A well known steel company has been fined £5,000 after a worker was injured while clearing a jam at a factory in East Cleveland.
The steel company pleaded guilty of health and safety breaches after machinery damaged the team leader's leg.
The Teesside Magistrates' Court was also ordered the company to pay £5,000 in public liability costs.
The company pleaded guilty of breaching regulations of both the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
The incident took place in May 2008, when the team leader was struck by moving machinery.
He sustained several personal injury including injuries to his right leg, which still requires medical treatment.
The court heard that the 41-year-old man had been trying to clear a jam in a machine.
This machine required an operator activating controls above the mill floor but the operator was unable to see the man below and instructions were conveyed via a third man using a combination of shouting and hand signals.
HSE inspector Bruno Porter commented on the work accident: “Our investigations found that relaying instructions through another person was common practice on the mill floor, as radios were not always available and the noise in the factory made them hard to use."
Updated on 09/03/2010