A man lost three fingers after his hand was drawn into a piece of factory machinery.
John Cotton Group Limited, a bedding manufacturer, faced legal action following the incident on December 9, 2020 – which resulted in one of its machine operators having three fingers on his left hand amputated. The incident occurred due to there being inadequate procedures in place to allow safe interventions with machinery.
The 36-year-old victim, from Wigan, had noticed a fault with the machine at the company's Snuggledown premises in Ashton-in-Makerfield and in an attempt to resolve the issue, tried to power down the machine to allow access. However, the machine was still moving, and his left hand contacted dangerous moving parts.
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Health and Safety Executive (HSE) enforcement lawyer Radha Vaithianathar told Manchester City Magistrates' Court how the man’s fingers were partially severed by the machinery with the remainder having to be surgically amputated at hospital.
An investigation by HSE found John Cotton Group Limited had not made adequate arrangements to prevent access to dangerous moving parts of the machine. The company failed to "provide a sufficiently robust procedure" for powering down the machine to allow safe access. There was also inadequate training, monitoring and supervision of employees for dealing with problems with the machine.
John Cotton Group Limited, of Beaver Court, Lockett Road, Wigan, pleaded guilty to breaching a number of sections of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £80,000 and was ordered to pay £4,989 costs at a hearing at Manchester City Magistrates' Court on June 5, 2023.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Thomas Delroy said: “This severe injury could have been easily prevented and the risk should have been identified. Employers should make sure they have a robust procedure for isolating machinery, and they have appropriate training, supervision and monitoring to ensure it is adhered to”
In a statement the company told the MEN: "An accident occurred at our Snuggledown Ashton site involving an employee in December 2020. This was and remains a matter of the sincerest regret to all of us at John Cotton Group Limited.
"We are confident that this was an isolated incident and we have worked closely with the HSE to ensure that all lessons have been learned and a similar accident can never happen again. As a business we strive to achieve the highest standards in everything that we do and to continually improve our safety processes to maintain a safe and healthy working environment for our employees and contractors.
"We have a previous excellent safety record, and our team of dedicated health and safety professionals continue to support our management teams to ensure these standards are always maintained."
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