Accident at work results in broken arm

A Telford-based confectionery firm has been fined £25,000 after one of its employees broke her arm when it became trapped in a conveyor system.

Magna Specialist Confectioners Ltd (MSC) was also ordered to pay £4,928 costs at Shrewsbury Crown Court.

The company had earlier pleaded guilty at Telford Magistrates' Court to breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

MSC was prosecuted over an incident which happened back in October 2006.

The court heard that a member of staff at the group's site on Stafford Park 9, Telford, broke her arm after it got caught between a static part of machinery and the unguarded moving conveyor system.

She had been moved from her normal packaging job to a production line where she filled a hopper with biscuit crumbs that were then dispensed automatically on to chocolate eggs moving along a conveyor belt.

However, the court heard that because the crumb was not being distributed evenly, the employee tried to rectify the problem herself, and in doing so sustained the injury.

Copyright © PA Business 2008

David Urpeth from law firm Irwin Mitchell said: "Industrial accidents involving moving parts of machinery can and often do result in terrible injuries. For that reason, employers have a duty to ensure dangerous parts of machines are guarded to prevent people sustaining injury.

"Sadly, I have represented many people who have been seriously injured or killed following becoming trapped in machinery during a works accident. Many such workplace accidents could and should be avoided."