Newport company fined £23,000 after crush injury during fault-finding

F C Brown (Steel Equipment) Limited of Newport, a company which manufactures office equipment, was fined £23,401 (inc. costs) after a trainee worker was injured when he was crushed by a metal folding machine.

The circumstances were:

• There were insufficient measures taken by the company to control the risks associated with its maintenance activities.
• An employee entered the guarded area of a metal folding machine to fix a fault. 
• Whilst in this area he was crushed between the fixed body of the machine and the machine’s moving manipulator arm, causing serious injury.
• The incident shattered all of the worker’s right-hand side ribs and broke two ribs on his left side. 
• He was in hospital for two months.

The HSE inspector said:
“The injury could easily have been avoided had F C Brown (Steel Equipment) Limited provided sufficient training and an adequate level of supervision to make sure safety measures were in place when machinery maintenance activities were being undertaken.”