Glass recycling company Berryman has been fined 5,000 and ordered to pay 3,638 in costs after a temporary worker had his arm crushed when it was drawn into a glass sorting machine in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
The 18-year-old Sheffield worker was employed by a local staffing agency and had been working as a temp at Reuse Collections Ltd which trades as Berryman when the incident happened at the companys South Kirkby site on Jun 15 2012.
Berryman said it ‘sincerely regrets the incident’ and has since implemented a number of further measures to avoid such an incident occurring again in future.
Wakefield Magistrates were told yesterday (December 17) that the teenager had been asked by a supervisor to clean a machine used to separate glass from other waste material.
According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the machine was running and his left hand was drawn in between a rotating metal drum and a moving conveyor belt. As a result, he suffered a fractured upper arm, which surgeons needed to use bone from his hip and metal rods to rebuild.
A subsequent investigation found that the machine had been totally unguarded, providing ready access by workers to dangerous moving parts, HSE said.
Furthermore, the company had no work system in place to make sure the machine was isolated and safely locked off before cleaning was carried out.
HSE told the court that rather than fitting an effective guard enclosing the dangerous parts of the machine, the company relied on employees to carry out cleaning carefully to avoid contact with the moving parts.
After admitting a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Reuse Collections Ltd trading as Berryman, of Lidgate Crescent, Langthwite Business Park, South Kirkby in Pontefract was handed a 5,000 fine and ordered to pay 3,628 in costs.
HSE
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Bradley Wigglesworth said: There is no excuse for companies to operate machinery without protecting employees and other workers from the dangerous parts. The requirement for guarding is well known and recognised across industry not least because the risks are obvious.
Had the machine had adequate guarding and a safe system of work implemented to isolate the machine, the serious and painful injury to this young and inexperienced worker could have been avoided.
Berryman
Mark Wilson, chief executive of the company, commented: “Reuse Collections Ltd, trading as Berryman, takes its responsibilities towards the safety of its employees or any other person under our control very seriously, and sincerely regrets the incident that led to Mr Shell been injured. The company has admitted to the single breach of Health and Safety legislation on this occasion, and has had no previous convictions.
“Since the accident, we have fully cooperated with the Health and Safety Executive’s investigation, complied fully with its recommendations and have implemented a number of further measures to avoid such an incident occurring in future.”
West Yorkshire-based Berryman operates several glass processing facilities in the UK. The firm has this year invested 9 million in upgrading its Knottingley and South Kirkby glass recycling sites (see letsrecycle.com story).
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