13/01/2011 - Firm fined over worker's injury
A Suffolk building firm has been fined £10,000 over a workplace accident in which an employee's thumb and a finger were sawn off by a moulding machine.
David Head lost the two fingers when his left hand got caught in a cutter at G J Bream & Son in Bury St Edmunds.
The 24-year-old bench joiner from Sudbury was shaping a piece of timber at the time and it was found during a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation later that there were no work holders in place to keep his hands away from the machine's sharp blades.
The other fingers on Mr Head's hand were also badly cut, and although plastic surgeons managed to reattach the thumb and finger, he is unlikely to regain their full use, Bury St Edmunds Magistrates' Court was told.
HSE inspectors also found during their probe that the firm's risk assessment for the job was inadequate and members of the staff had not be trained properly to use such dangerous machinery.
The company, which admitted to breaching health and safety regulations, was handed a fine of £10,000 and ordered to pay £4,026 in costs.
Copyright © Press Association 2011
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