The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted a plastics company in Liverpool, after an employee lost four fingers in a guillotine machine.

In May 2008, 22-year-old Wesley Dickinson from Walton on Merseyside had been trying to free the machine which had jammed. His fingers became trapped and four from his right hand were amputated by the machine. Doctors managed to re-attach two of them, but his injuries were described as having had a devastating affect on Mr Dickinson, who has been unable to return to his job. He will also be unable to do manual work in the foreseeable future because of lack of strength and limited mobility in his injured hand.

On Monday (11/01/2010) at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court, Centriforce Products Ltd of Derby Road in Liverpool pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and

Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was fined £2,500 and £2,438 costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Martin Paren said:

‘This incident has had a devastating impact on Mr Dickinson, who is only in his early 20s.

‘The company should have had a guard on the guillotine to prevent workers from reaching the blade. An automatic mechanism should also have been in place so that the power was cut if the guard was opened. Instead, Mr Dickinson wrongly assumed that a colleague had switched the guillotine off and he had four fingers cut off as a result.’

Mr Paren added that the incident showed the importance of manufacturing companies having in place automatic safety systems, to reduce the risk of workers being injured. Since the accident, a permanent guard has been added to the machine.

The HSE says that in the year 2007-08, there were nearly 26,000 injuries in the UK manufacturing sector, which included 35 deaths.

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