A company has been fined £20,000 after an employee’s arm was seriously injured by machinery at its Nottinghamshire site. Piotr Zielinski, 58, from Nottinghamshire, was working at food processing firm Belwood Foods Limited's site on Lowmoor Business Park, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, when his right arm was drawn into a machine and wrist crushed on November 22, 2019.
Mr Zielinski had been removing debris on the hinges of an open access panel door on the poultry processing machine. While removing the remains the still operational auger caught the worker’s right arm, drawing it into the machine up to the elbow. Skin and muscle was ripped from Mr Zielinski’s right arm and his wrist was also crushed, with these injuries requiring surgery. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found the access panel door was able to be opened freely whilst the auger was in motion.There were no controls in place to prevent the panel from being opened while the auger was moving. It was not locked or interlocked, and there was no safe isolation procedure for this weekly cleaning task.
The company was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £7,839.21 in costs at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Monday, October 9. Lee Greatorex, HSE inspector, said: “This injury was easily preventable. "Employers have a responsibility to properly assess the risks from all aspects of their operations, including cleaning and maintenance, and implement effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery. HSE will not hesitate to take action against companies which do not do all that they should to keep people safe.”