A Kent recycling firm has been prosecuted after an employee
had his jaw shattered into ‘pieces like cornflakes’ when he was hit by a piece
of plastic pipe ejected from a bandsaw.
The worker, then 42 from Chatham, who does not wish to be
named, was cutting down the old gas pipe for recycling at Kingsnorth Waste
Management’s site in Hoo, Rochester, on 11 August 2010 when the incident
happened. The pipe was some 50 cm long and 30 cm in diameter and 2 cm thick.
As he fed the domed section of the pipe into the bandsaw,
the teeth of the blade stuck into the plastic, rotated it round the domed end
and ejected it. The piece was thrown out at high speed and struck him in his
throat and under his chin. It broke both upper and lower jaw bones and burst
his jaw hinges.
Kingsnorth Waste Management pleaded guilty (24 July) to
safety failings at Dartford Magistrates’ Court after an investigation by the
Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
The court heard the worker had undergone a number of
operations, including a bone graft from his hip, over the past four years to
reconstruct his jaw. He still suffers from a continual feeling of ‘pins and
needles’ caused by irreparable nerve damage, and has problems eating.
Early in its investigation, HSE identified that after the
incident, there had been two further instances of plastic pipe being ejected as
it was being sawn and striking the operators, including one where the worker
was a 16-year-old trainee. As a result, a prohibition notice was served on
Kingsnorth Waste Management preventing any further use of the bandsaws for
cutting this sort of material.
HSE found the company had not identified the added risks of
using the bandsaws to cut across cylindrical material, such as the rotation and
ejection of pieces from the saw. There were no measures, such as the use of
jigs clamps or wedges, to allow the machine to be more safely used.
Kingsnorth Waste Management Ltd of Kingsnorth Industrial
Estate, Hoo, Rochester, was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay £3,000 in costs
after admitting a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. NEBOSH
National General Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety
No comments:
Post a Comment