by Kathryn Boast
5 November 2010
A worker at an aeronautical engineering company suffered a nasty injury when his left hand was sliced by a rotary saw blade.
The 28 year old had finished fashioning a metal blade for a jet engine when he reached across to retrieve the piece from his machine. The saw blade, which was still rotating sliced into his left hand and left him with a broken little finger, badly lacerated ring finger and severed tendons.
The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted his employer, Callender (Lancashire) Aeropart Ltd, of Metcalf Drive in Altham, under Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
Despite a recommendation made in a risk assessment some 16 months earlier, the company had not fitted a guard to the machine the victim was using, and the blade was freely accessible at the time of the accident in July 2009.
In a press release, the HSE’s David Myrtle said:
"The injuries this worker suffered were nasty but they could have been a lot worse. He was lucky not to lose one or more of his fingers.
"The risk assessment, carried out by the company more than a year earlier, had identified the machine as being dangerous and needing a guard. But Callender failed to make sure that an appropriate guard was used.
"Unfortunately even the most experienced machine operators can have a lapse in concentration. The company should have made sure a fixed guard had been installed to prevent injuries."
The company was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £3,996 in costs.