Risk, Health and Safety Information

Firms sentenced after factory worker finds brother dead

Two companies have been ordered to pay more than £450,000 in fines and costs for serious breaches of safety after a Stockport factory worker found his brother lying dead in the bed of a machine.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Unisign and WFEL Ltd after Brian Miller suffered fatal head injuries at the WFEL plant on Crossley Road in Heaton Chapel on 12 January 2008.

 
Manchester Crown Court, Minshull Street, heard the 38-year-old father-of-two from Denton had been working on a large machine used to manufacture bridges for the military.
 
An HSE investigation found Mr Miller had been leaning over a part of the machine to try and fix a fault with one of the switches when a large hydraulic ram descended on him. He was discovered by his brother, Robert, who also worked at the factory.
 
Netherlands-based firm Unisign Produktie Automatisering BV, which designed and manufactured the machine, was found to have supplied a machine which did not comply with European safety standards, as access should not have been possible when the machine was running at full speed.
 

The machine that caused Brian's death.
 

The company, of Panningen in the southern part of the Netherlands, was fined £200,000 after pleading guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £28,313.

WFEL Ltd was prosecuted after it failed to ensure a safe system was in place for workers using the machine. The company was fined £200,000 with costs of £28,074 after admitting a breach of the same Act.

Speaking after the hearing, Brian Miller’s sister, Linda Smitham, 44, said:

"Brian's death has devastated us and leaves a massive hole in all our lives, especially for his partner, Trish, who faces her future without him by her side.

"It saddens us greatly knowing a life had to be lost before forcing high priority safety measures to be put in place.

"Lessons have been learnt from this tragedy and we hope no other family will have to suffer the pain and trauma of losing a loved one in the way we have.

"The verdict at the inquest was accidental death. However, this accident was preventable. Today has confirmed that Brian should have come home from work that day."

HSE Inspector Philip Strickland added:

"This was a tragic death which could have been avoided if both the machine manufacturer and the factory owner had put more thought into the safety of the people using the machine.

"Unisign should not have supplied a machine which fell below accepted standards and did not have suitable guards and safety systems installed to protect workers. WFEL should have made sure its employees only fixed faults when the machine was in a safe state.

"It simply should not have been possible to access dangerous parts of the machine while it was still operating, but both Unisign and WFEL allowed this to happen."

A quarter of all workplace deaths occurred in the manufacturing industry in 2011/12, despite the sector only accounting for around 10% of the British workforce. A total of 31 people lost their lives while working in the sector, and more than 17,000 injuries were reported