Printing employee suffered crush injury

Northampton Magistrates’ Court heard how, on 11 January 2018, the employee was cleaning a rotating roller at a site in Kettering. The roller was on a production line that makes padded envelopes. The cloth the worker was using got caught and she was drawn into the rollers. She suffered an amputation to her right-hand middle finger and two other fingers were fractured, with some degloving of the skin.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that V P Packaging Ltd had not adequately guarded the rotating rollers preventing access to the dangerous parts of the machinery.

VP Packaging Ltd, of Kettering Parkway, Northamptonshire pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company has been fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1346.60 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £170.

After the hearing HSE inspector Michelle Morrison said, “This injury could have been easily prevented, and the risk should have been identified.

“Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures like suitable guards, to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery.”