A West Yorkshire food manufacturer was fined £640,000 for a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations and ordered to pay £26,234 costs. The injured party, who suffered a double compound fracture to his arm, placed his right hand close to a gap in the machine housing. An emery cloth held in his right hand was dragged into the machine taking his arm with it.  The employee was unable to reach any of the emergency stop buttons located around the machine from the position in which he was trapped and had to be released from the machine by paramedics.

A Scottish Borders precision tool manufacturer was fined £100,000 after an employee’s index finger was severed and his thumb deeply lacerated when his glove, which he should not have been wearing, became entangled in a drilling machine.  The HSE Inspector commented: “This incident could so easily have been avoided by simply carrying out the correct control measures and safe working practices”.

A Lincolnshire chemical company was fined £200,000 after a worker had his left arm crushed in a bottle filling machine.  The HSE Inspector said: “The company should have developed a standard operating procedure for the adjustment process, which if implemented correctly along with their lock off procedure, could have prevented the incident. Non-routine maintenance tasks must be carried out by trained personnel working to standard safe operating procedures”.