Personal Injury Solicitors

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted a West Midlands firm after an employee lost a fingertip while using an unguarded drill.

The unnamed 32-year-old worker from Dudley in the West Midlands was employed by H&H Alloy Sales Ltd when the incident happened on 18 December, 2013.

He was using the drill to drill holes into metal components but as he tried to push a piece of metal which was not moving as it should, his hand moved and his middle finger became caught in the drill bit – as his work glove became more entangled, he was unable to remove it.

As a result of his injury, surgeons had to amputate the tip of his middle finger and he was on sick leave for three months.

When he returned to work earlier this year, he experienced considerable discomfort and surgeons decided to amputate more of the finger up to the first joint. The man only returned to work again in September.

HSE investigators found that the firm had in place a documented safety procedure for using the drill, which stated that as part of the preparations for using the drill, the guard should be in place and the operator should check this to make sure it was correctly fitted.

The guard had been removed, however and had never been replaced.

The drill’s guard has now been re-fitted after it was found in a box.

On Thursday, 2 October at the Black Country Magistrates’ Court, H&H Alloy Sales Ltd of Titford Lane, Rowley Regis in the West Midlands pleaded guilty to one breach of the Health and Safety etc Act 1974.

The firm was fined £13,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,391.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Judith Lloyd said that the incident was “entirely preventable”.

“The underlying cause was that it was custom and practice to use the drill without the guard in place,” she said.

“Instruction for employees was lacking – and there was no system in place to check that guards were being used correctly, despite having a written procedure.

“It was reasonably practicable to guard the drill – and it had in fact been guarded in the past,” Ms Lloyd added.

“Wearing gloves without an appropriate guard significantly increased the risk of entanglement – something the company had been provided with advice on during a previous inspection.”

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Duncan Lewis no win no fee solicitors can advise those who lose a limb, finger or toe as a result of negligence at work or in road accidents or sports accidents or through medical negligence on how to make Amputation Claims.

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