Employee Loses Arm in Paper Firm Accident, Company Fined
An accident in a paper firm showed up the horrific consequences of lack of safety measures deployed in many workplaces. In the accident, a worker lost his arm as no basic safety provisions were incorporated into the work area.
The paper firm based in Inverurie has been asked to pay a fine of £6,000 following this accident. HSE investigators expressed shock that such accidents are still allowed to happen at workplaces in this century, when many safety features and options can be implemented with minimal effort and cost. The sentence was pronounced by
The incident occurred when an employee was working with machinery in the paper firm. The machine had run out of paper, and the employee attempted to replace the paper rolls by throwing a fresh one into the machine. In the process, his arm was wrapped by the paper sheets and it was caught in the equipment. The arm was mangled so badly that it had to be amputated. The accident would have been worse had a co-worker not switched off the machine immediately during the incident.
Speaking about the incident, HSE inspectors said that even the safety barriers that were present at the accident site were inadequate to prevent a mishap like this from happening. They pointed out several serious accidents in the paper industry as examples to make employers doubly aware of the importance of safety measures. In light of this, it is shameful that such incidents still take place, added the inspectors.
Companies need to be sure that they are giving the correct instructions with effective policies around health and safety decisions to help protect their staff. Workplace Law Training offer ‘working safely’ courses covering all kinds of workplace situations; the IOSH working safely programme can be tailored to meet the needs of an individual organisation; click on IOSH Training for course details.
