Jaguar Land Rover has been prosecuted after one of its workers suffered severe crush injuries from some inadequately guarded machinery.
The 57-year-old man, who lives in Northfield, Birmingham but has asked not to be named, works as a maintenance electrician at the firm, and was injured when he was dragged into the machinery at the company’s paint shop in Solihull in June 2013.
As a result of the incident, the man punctured both of his lungs, suffered ten broken ribs, a broken breastbone, two broken bones in his spine and two broken bones in his right hand. He had blood clots on his kidneys and his heart and spent 12 days in intensive care in an induced coma. A further seven days were spent in hospital but he returned to work 17 weeks later.
Birmingham Crown Court heard how an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that, following a number of production line stoppages, the worker was curious as to what was causing the problems and wanted to view the process in operation, approaching a gap in the perimeter guarding which bordered the vehicle body lifting equipment.
However, as he looked on, he was struck by an empty vehicle body carrier that was travelling through the gap on a circulatory chain conveyor. The carrier knocked him to the ground, forcibly dragging him through the gap and into a restricted processing area. Here, he was severely crushed.
Following the incident, the gap remained unguarded until the HSE stepped in, enforcing the introduction of further protection measures at the site. Jaguar Land Rover consequently took steps to close off the part of the conveyor involved in the incident with fixed perimeter guards, introducing a robust key exchange access system.
At the hearing, which took place on 23rd December, Jaguar Land Rover Ltd was fined a total of £40,000 along with £13,474 in costs after it pleaded guilty to breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations. In giving the sentence, His Honour Judge Carr said the company “fell far short of a safe and reasonable standard.”
HSE inspector John Glynn said after the hearing: “The incident was entirely preventable. Although the gap was minimally sized to allow empty carriers into the restricted area, it also allowed access to dangerous moving parts within the production process while in itself creating a crush hazard with the moving conveyor.
“Jaguar Land Rover has extensive safety systems in place and the Lode Lane plant had other facilities with similar processes that are guarded much more effectively. The company should have ensured the same level of protection at this location. It didn’t and as a result a man suffered horrific injuries. It is remarkable that he recovered enough to return to work within 17 weeks. The incident could very easily have ended his life.”
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