A confectionery company based in Telford, Shropshire has been prosecuted after a worker sustained head injuries while trying to clear up a spill in machinery on a production line.

In February 2007, a worker at Magna Specialist Confectioners Ltd (MSC) was working at their site at Stafford Park Nine in Telford.

The employee was attempting to wipe up a leak of refrigerant inside the interlocked safety doors of a machine on the production line. As he put his head through the doors into the machine, the powered part of the machinery moved forcefully to one side, leaving a gap of around 5cm between it and the stationery part of the machine.

The impact to the front of the man’s head did not fully trap him in the gap and he was thrown out of the machine, which saved him from instant death. The force of the weight that hit him is estimated as being one tonne, said inspectors for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which brought the prosecution.

The worker spent two weeks in a coma and has been left with ‘a significant level’ of blindness and deafness, loss of taste and smell – as well as suffering personality changes.

On 9 December, 2009 at Shrewsbury Crown Court, Magna pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company had already been fined £25,000 for a previous prosecution brought in February 2008 under the same regulation.

On Monday, 10 May at Shrewsbury Crown Court, Magna was fined a total of £75,000 and ordered to pay costs of £37,500.

Speaking after the hearing, investigating inspector for the HSE Guy Dale said that it was ‘a fundamental expectation’ that employees should be able to work in safety.     

‘Assessing risks and implementing controls often only requires simple, cost-effective actions to be taken,’ said Mr Dale.

‘An operative should not have been able to get to the dangerous parts of the machine while it was working at full production speed. When the interlocked doors were opened, the production line should have been designed to stop. 

‘The injured man is only in his early 30s and had the promise of a healthy future – but now has such permanent damage that his future prospects and employment potential are severely restricted.  He has a wife and a young daughter born a few months after the incident occurred,’ said Mr Dale.

‘The fine imposed by the Crown Court reflects that there was a previous history cataloguing systemic machinery guarding failures in the company – and a lack of risk assessment, leaving employees exposed to risk to their health and safety,’ he added.

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