£7,000 fine after worker is injured (From Daily Echo)
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W H Rowe fined after worker loses a toe in accident
6:10pm Monday 18th March 2013 in News
£7,000 fine after worker is injured
A Southampton engineering firm has been ordered to pay more than £11,694 after a worker seriously injured his foot in a casting machine.
Bosses at W H Rowe in Northam pleaded guilty at Southampton Magistrates’ Court to health and safety breaches.
Employee Paul Thornton trapped his foot in the lower ram of an aluminium casting machine at its Bond Street workshop while constructing a fan blade.
Colleagues freed him but surgeons were forced to amputate his right toe. His injuries also included a cut head and five fractures to his remaining toes, but he returned to work 13 weeks later.
The Health and Safety Executive ruled that the safety devices were unsuitable and insufficient to protect workers from moving parts. The accident would have been prevented if it was properly guarded and better configured. The HSE said the company had failed to carry out a proper risk assessment. The company was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay £4,694 in costs.
Afterwards HSE inspector Alec Ryan said: “This incident was wholly preventable.”
