A Romsey chicken hatchery business has been fined after a worker was dragged by his arm into an unguarded area of a conveyor belt, suffering serious injuries.
Calmore-based Andrew House was cleaning the conveyor belt at Faccenda Foods hatchery when the incident occurred in March 2014. Southampton Magistrates’ Court heard how his left hand was dragged into the ‘running nip’ of the conveyor belt, leaving him needing hospital treatment and unable to work for several months after the incident. He now only has limited use of his hand and still needs to undergo physiotherapy to help increase his mobility. The court heard that the conveyor only came to a halt when it was stopped by a colleague, as Mr House was unable to reach the emergency stop control.
An investigation into the incident was launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who prosecuted the company for safety failings after finding that the nip of the belt was completely unguarded. The court heard that the Northamptonshire-based foods business had also been prosecuted by the HSE in 2001 because of another incident involving poorly-guarded machinery. For this most recent incident, the firm was fined a total of £7000 along with costs of £2909.25 after it admitted to breaching both the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.