Accident at work - hand injury

An engineering company has been fined £3,500 after an employee suffered a hand injury when it became trapped in a sheet metal rolling machine.

DMD Electronic Engineers Ltd, of Enfield, London, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, over the incident in which machine operator Egbert Johnson, 57, lost the tip of his little finger and suffered deep cuts to his right hand.

City of London Magistrates' Court heard Mr Johnson was feeding metal sheets into a roll forming machine on January 14, 2006, when the right hand of his leather glove became caught between the rollers and pulled his hand into the mechanism.

DMD Electronics was also ordered to pay costs of £1,510.

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David Urpeth, Partner at law firm Irwin Mitchell specialises in accident at work cases. He commented: Employers have a duty to ensure those operating machines can do so safely without the risk of their hand getting caught in the machine. In this case, the employers failed to meet the standards expected of them with tragic consequences.

I represent many employees who have suffered hand injuries as a result of unsafe working practices. Sadly, all too often, I see the consequences of this.