Interface

Winter 2022 35 www.hae.org.uk www.eha.org.uk Two partners in a construction firm have been fined for failing to adequately control the risk to its employees from exposure to vibration when using vibrating tools. Employees of Roywood Contractors worked at various construction sites using vibrating tools without adequate control. As a result, an employee who had been working at the company for 12 years suffered significant ill- health from hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS). An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that in January 2020 the company failed to adequately assess the risk to employees from exposure to vibration. It did not have appropriate measures to control exposure or place employees under suitable health surveillance to monitor their condition. Andrew Hatto and Paul Kiff, trading as Roywood Contractors, of Tilford Road, Tilford, Farnham, Surrey pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6 (1) and 7 (1) of the Control of Vibration Regulations 2005. They were each fined £1,150 and ordered to pay costs of £3,500 each at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court. FIRM FAILED TO CONTROL RISKS TO EMPLOYEES FROM VIBRATION A manufacturing company has been fined £20,000 after a worker’s hand was partially severed when it was caught in machinery. The employee of ADA Machining Services Ltd, Ashton-under-Lyne, was operating a Richards 16ft vertical boring machine on 24 March 2021 when he stepped on to the rotating table to check the internal boring cut but slipped and fell on the table. On his third attempt to steady himself after slipping, his hand was drawn into the in-running nip, and he suffered a partially- severed hand. He remains unable to work. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that there was inadequate guarding to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machinery and an inadequate risk assessment for operating the vertical boring machine. The investigation found that it was also custom and practice to walk on the rotating machine table during operation of the vertical boring machine. ADA Machining Services Ltd, of Richmond Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £20,000 with £4,952 costs at Manchester Magistrates’ Court. The company, which is a sub-contractor in the machining sector specialising in heavy components, had previously pleaded guilty of breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulation 11(1) in May 2010 for an entrapment accident on a vertical boring machine. HSE provided guidance on guarding these machines at that time so the company had been aware of the risks for a number of years and should have taken remedial action to prevent a second accident of the same nature happening again. INADEQUATE GUARDING LEADS TO HAND BEING PARTICALLY SEVERED, DESPITE PREVIOUS WARNINGS