In the fourth HSE prosecution in a week involving machine guarding lapses, a European frozen vegetables supplier has been fined £10,000 after an operator lost a finger when his hand was caught between a pallet and a conveyor.

The Pinguin Foods worker had gone behind a Perspex acrylic guard to straighten some boxes while the automatic palletising machine was still running. His hand was trapped and doctors had to amputate his middle finger.

The HSE investigation revealed workers at the company’s Boston, Lancashire factory had been given interlock keys which disabled the box loading machine’s safety systems, and employees regularly entered the equipment’s enclosure while it was still operational.

“The automatic palletising machine can carry up to a ton of boxes so the employee could easily have suffered more severe injuries,” said HSE inspector Scott Wynne.

“Pinguin should have had robust supervision and monitoring that should have identified staff were overriding interlocks and stopped it happening.”

The company, which has a €466 million (£393 million) turnover with six sites in Europe and three in the UK, admitted failing to protect employees, contrary to Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

The court ordered Pinguin to pay a £10,000 fine with £3500 in prosecution costs.

On 14 July 2010, Building Adhesives was fined £10,000 after a worker’s finger was severed by a rubber conveying machine.

The same week, another company was prosecuted for machine guarding offences that led to a worker losing his hand, and a food packaging firm was also in court over an incident in which an employee’s hand was trapped in a press.

Article created by Editor. (info@complyuk.co.uk)