Two Men Injured In Work Accidents

A chemical company has been fined £26,000 over a pair of accidents which left two men needing skin grafts when their hands became trapped in machinery.

Warwick International's Mostyn site contained a bagging machine, Flintshire Magistrates' Court heard, which injured both Clwyd Roberts and Allan Breeze. In separate incidents within weeks of each other, the mens' hands became lodged in a roller.

Despite the company's claim that since the accidents, a "gold plated" approach had been taken to security, the court ruled that work made in a safety review which followed the first accident on in December 2007 should have ensured that the rollers were released under pressure.

Instead the opposite effect occurred, which saw the machinery tighten on trapped material.

The court fined the company £12,000 for the first incident and £14,000 for the second, as well as costs of £1,947.

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David Urpeth form law firm Irwin Mitchell said: “I welcome the fines imposed following these two very serious accidents at work.

“The regulations in place to protect workers health and safety mean that dangerous parts of machinery should be guarded.  As such, the first accident should not have occurred and having done so, lessons should have been learnt so that as a result, the second accident was prevented.  It is therefore of concern that both these accidents happened.

“All too often, I have to help workers pursue their compensation claim following accidents which have occurred in circumstances which could and should have been avoided.”