An engineering firm in Kent has been fined after a young employee was left disabled when a metal sheet fell on his feet, severing three toes from one foot and breaking all toes on the other.
20-year-old Anton Hunter, an engineer with G&P Machine Shop Ltd in Queensborough, was assisting a colleague with unloading a fabricated steel sheet delivery at a nearby site. However, it was then that a 700 kg sheet became dislodged from a magnet, falling directly on his feet.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated the incident and prosecuted G&P Machine Shop at Maidstone Magistrates’ Court yesterday (12th March). The investigation found that the company had failed in its duty to check that the magnet being used was the correct one for the job.
The firm was fined £16,000 for the incident along with costs of £1,036 after it admitted to breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
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