The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted steel firm Corus UK Limited, after an employee suffered serious injuries to his leg while attempting to clear a blockage on a production line.

In May 2008, 41-year-old David Harrison was at team leader at Corus UK Limited’s Skinningrove plant in east Cleveland. He was working on the mill floor where steel is rolled into long beams – and was attempting to clear a jam in a machine that requires an operator to activate the controls from above the mill floor.

The operator was unable to see Mr Harrison and instructions were being relayed through a third employee, using a combination of hand signals and shouting.

During the procedure, Mr Harrison was struck by moving machinery and sustained severe injuries to his right leg.

On Monday (01/03/10) at Teesside Magistrates’ Court, Corus UK Limited – trading as Corus Special Profiles and based at 30 Millbank, London SW1 – pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974 and breaching Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Corus UK Limited was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £5,074 costs, plus a £15 victim surcharge.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Bruno Porter said that the incident could have easily been avoided – but instead Mr Harrison had been left with a badly injured leg for which he still required medical help.

‘Our investigations found that relaying instructions through another person was common practice on the mill floor, as radios were not always available and the noise in the factory made them hard to use,’ said Mr Porter

‘Despite the fact that clearing jams in machinery was a common operation, there was no record of a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for this activity and no recorded safe system of work in place.

‘While Corus was aware of the hazards and had implemented safe operating procedures to deal with some of the risks, it failed to install a full safe isolation system, which had been identified as necessary prior to the incident,’ Mr Porter added.

© 5r1 Limited 2010