A drinks company has been fined £14,000 after a man’s finger was amputated after being caught in bottling machinery.
Daniel Richardson was helping a colleague who was encountering problems with a bottle capping machine at the plant in Leicestershire on 17 January 2022.
The then 32-year-old reached into the machine and into the capper unit to remove the jammed part. The capper head descended onto his finger, amputating the tip. Medics tried to re-attach the tip of the finger but this proved unsuccessful.
Sourcing International Limited, trading as Drinks Chef, failed to properly guard against access to dangerous parts of machinery, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigators found – in this instance fixed guarding had been removed and the machine was frequently used without it.
Suitable guards would render dangerous parts of machinery inaccessible during normal use and would have avoided this serious injury to Daniel, said investigating inspector Rebecca Gibson.
Loughborough Magistrates’ Court was told at a hearing last month that an interlock device which should function to isolate the power and stop the machine when protective doors/guards were opened elsewhere on the machine was inoperable and so access to moving parts of machinery was further possible.
The company admitted breaching regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations. It was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,175.