A council-owned recycling company in South Wales has been fined a total of 90,000 after a worker had his right arm pulled off by a conveyor belt while working at its site in Crymlyn Burrows.
Neath Port Talbot (NPT) Recycling Ltd was also ordered to pay a further 50,000 in costs at a hearing at Swansea Crown Court on Friday (October 25) after a prosecution brought by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).
Stephen John, then aged 57, of Baglan Moors, Port Talbot was working for NPT Recycling at its site when the incident happened on May 11 2011.
NPT Recycling is a subsidiary of Neath Port Talbot Waste Management, which is wholly owned by Neath Port Talbot county borough council.
A council spokesman said the authority was not involved in the day-to-day running of the Materials Recovery and Energy Centre (MREC), where the incident took place. The facility separates and processes the councils municipal waste for energy recovery and recycling, as well as that of Bridgend county borough council.
The court heard that Mr John was asked to clean a conveyor at the site which had become blocked with a sticky black substance known as flack.
No risk assessment
HSE said that the company did not have any risk assessment or safe system of work for completing this task and that experienced employees like Mr John had developed their own way of cleaning the conveyor belt roller.
This system of work was devised partly because the control switch was located some distance away from the actual conveyor, HSE said.
HSE stated: To clean the rollers, one employee stood by the control switch, which is out of sight from the conveyor, and a second person inserted a bar and scraped the flack from the roller. He then inserted his arm to wipe away the flack. A command was given to the switch controller and the conveyor was started and stopped quickly. The process was repeated until the roller was clean.
On the day of the incident, Mr John inserted his arm and was wiping the flack away. He then passed the bar to a work colleague. The switch controller misinterpreted this as a signal and started the conveyor.
Mr Johns right forearm was trapped and amputated by the conveyor belt. His arm was severed below the elbow and could not be reattached by surgeons, according to HSE.
Serious injury
Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Sarah Baldwin-Jones said: Mr John suffered a serious and permanent injury. The potential for greater harm or a fatal incident was also a realistic possibility.
The company failed to fully guard the conveyor around the tail end roller and this failure resulted in employees having access to dangerous parts of the machine. The risk of entrapment is well known in the industry, and this company could have taken simple steps to fit guarding.”
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She added: There was also no line of sight between Mr John and the employee operating the machinery and the company failed to carry out a risk assessment when the conveyor was installed. They also failed to devise a safe way of cleaning the rollers and to instruct employees on how to clean them safely.
Neath Port Talbot Recycling of Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
When contact by letsrecycle.com, the company was unavailable for comment.
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