Grain milling firm told to pay +£30k for lost fingers
The accident happened when Roman Banach, aged 49, who lives in Wellingborough, reached into the chute of a mixer at Genteel Associates in Wellingborough on August 16 2011.
Contact with the blades severed all but one finger on his right hand up to the first joint. He still suffers pain and has been unable to return to work, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Wellingborough Magistrates’ Court was told that Genteel Associates failed to adequately guard the mixer to restrict access to dangerous moving parts.
Failed to guard
The company had failed to adequately guard two other machines, revealed an investigation by the HSE. It served prohibition notices on all three machines to place them out of bounds until safety adjustments had been made.
The HSE served four improvement notices. The first referred to the company’s lack of a checking system to ensure that guards were in place.
The second notice required the firm to seek competent health and safety advice.
The third referred to the fact that employees were not protected from the risks arising from grain dust – known to induce asthma.
The fourth notice required the firm to protect employees from the risks of noise in the workplace.
‘Controlling very real risks’
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Elizabeth Hornsby said: “Health and safety isn’t about paperwork, it is about recognising and controlling very real risks – whatever the size of your company.
"Genteel Associates has now taken the necessary action to comply with all the notices served on it and has improved standards as a result. However, it took a serious incident and an extremely painful injury to an employee for the company to start identifying and controlling the risks in their business. Had this happened sooner, the incident could have been avoided.”
Genteel Associates, of Lloyd Close, Finedon Road Industrial Estate, Wellingborough, was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay £12,776 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
