Risk, Health and Safety Information

Safety failings put West Sussex firm in court

A Worthing company that makes audio equipment used by leading recording studios has been fined after a worker broke an arm in an unguarded machine.

Mark Mann, 42, who lives in Worthing, was attempting to correct a fault in a vacuum-forming machine used to manufacture loudspeaker cones at B&W Group Ltd in Dale Road on 1 November 2011.

He had his right arm through a gap in the machine when its cooling cycle stopped and the gap closed, fracturing the upper bones and causing nerve damage. He needed a plate inserted to help heal the break and was unable to return to work for seven months. He has since been made redundant.

The incident was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which prosecuted B&W Group Ltd for safety failings.

Worthing Magistrates were told Mr Mann had thought the machine's fault was being caused by a pipe that had kinked. He had accessed a gap while the machine was in the cooling cycle, during which the vacuum table is raised. At the end of the cycle the raised table part dropped, trapping Mr Mann's arm.

HSE found the company had done an assessment of the risks involved in using the machine but had only considered burn injuries rather than any danger from the moving parts. It found there was no guarding on the machine to prevent employees getting too close to the dangerous part of the equipment while in operation.

B&W Group Ltd was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £6,978 in costs after admitting a single breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Graham Goodenough, said:

"This case shows the importance of carrying out a thorough assessment of all the risks involved in machinery. What happened to Mr Mann was easily avoidable and shortly after the incident the company did fit a suitable guard to the machine that would have prevented it happening