Firm fined after unguarded drill causes worker to lose fingertip 03 October 2014

West Midlands fabrications firm H&H Alloy Sales has been fined £13,000 plus £1,391 costs in court after an employee lost the tip of his finger in an unguarded drill.

Black Country Magistrates' Court heard that the worker was drilling holes into metal components at the company's Rowley Regis factory in December 2013.

As he pushed a piece of metal, his finger became caught on the drill bit and his glove became entangled. He had to have the tip of his middle finger amputated and subsequently amputated to the first joint.

An HSE (Health and Safety Executive) investigation found the company had a documented safe system of work for the drill, which stated that the guard should be placed in position and then checked by the operator. However, the guard had been removed and never replaced.

"The incident was entirely preventable: the underlying cause was that it was custom and practice to use the drill without a guard in place," comments HSE inspector Judith Lloyd.

"Instruction for employees was lacking and there was no system in place to check that guards were being used correctly, despite having a written procedure," she adds.

Lloyd points out that it was reasonably practicable to guard the drill and it had been guarded in the past. She also says that the firm had been advised that wearing gloves without an appropriate guard significantly increased the risk of entanglement.

"Following the incident, the job was completed on a programmable automatic drilling machine, which begs the question, why didn't the company use this method from the start?"

Brian Tinham

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Health & Safety Executive

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