A company has been fined £400,000 after a worker had to have one of his arms amputated following an accident.
The 48-year-old staff member was seriously injured at Saint-Gobain Construction Products UK Ltd, near Loughborough in Leicestershire.
The site designs, makes and distributes construction materials.
Loughborough Magistrates’ Court heard how the worker was hurt when a rock handling belt failed at the company’s plant in Barrow-upon-Soar on August 13, 2017.
The hearing was told that two employees had been clearing rock that had built up around the belt and become so compacted it was difficult to remove by hand.
Both men went to one end of the belt and pressed the ‘start/stop’ button, but it failed to clear itself of rock.
One of the men went to the opposite side of the tail-end drum to remove the rock and the pair were no longer in visual contact.
His colleague pressed the start/stop button again whilst his colleague’s arm was close to a rotating drum and his arm was drawn in.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found there was no risk assessment or safe system of work in place for clearing rock safely from tail-end drums.
Saint-Gobain Construction Products UK Limited of Binley Business Park, Coventry, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £400,000 with costs of £12,945.62.
Speaking after the case, HSE inspector Michelle Morrison said: “This injury could easily have been prevented, had the risk have been identified.
“Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery”.
A spokesman for the company said the employee was a skilled, well respected and competent member of the team, having worked at Barrow for 29 years.
He said: “We were deeply saddened and shocked by this accident and have expressed our deepest regret for the accident and sympathies for the injuries sustained by our employee.
“Safety is at the foundation of our business – it always has been and remains our number one priority.
“Our approach to safety is built on robust systems and processes, reinforced by behavioural based safety, all of which are designed to prevent employees being hurt at work.
“Our commitment to safety is clear through our “TargetZero” strategy and has been recognised positively through our company-wide employee survey, in saying that, we will never take health and safety for granted.”
