A steel firm has admitted a number of safety failings after a worker became trapped in a roller on a production line.
The incident took place on 12 September 2011 at Sherling Steel UK Ltd’s factory in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. A worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, brought two steel girders into the workshop and placed them on powered rollers at the start of a shotblasting and painting line. He then left for the weekend.
When he returned to work for his Monday shift, he set the rollers running, climbed through a curtain screen and entered the paint booth. He placed thin plastic films on the rollers, so they would not be contaminated, but forgot he had placed the girders further down the production line at the end of his previous shift.
While he was in the paint booth, the girders moved down the production line and struck him in the lower back, knocking him through the rollers on to the floor. His leg became trapped between the rollers and one of the girders. He suffered severe bruising and soft-tissue damage to his foot and lower leg.
The HSE visited the site the same day and found the company hadn’t carried out a sufficient risk assessment for operating the machine. There were no guards in place to prevent access to the rollers while the machine was moving. No safe system of work or instructions had been created for changing the plastic film, which needed to be done three or four times a shift.
The company was issued a Prohibition Notice, which required it to prevent access to the paint booth while the rollers were in motion. It was also served an Improvement Notice, ordering it to install guarding around the whole production line.
HSE inspector Denise Fotheringham said: “This incident was the result of Sherling Steel’s long-term neglect of their responsibilities toward the safety of their workforce. It could very easily have resulted in a much more serious, even fatal, injury.
“In the ‘safety vacuum’ created by the firm’s management, the employees developed their own method for changing the [plastic] film on rollers inside the paint booth. It was inherently unsafe, as it involved going into the booth when it was not isolated and rollers were set on automatic.”
Sherling Steel UK appeared at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court on 10 January and pleaded guilty to breaching s2(1) of the HSWA 1974, and reg.3(1)(a) of MHSWR 1999. It was fined a total of £20,000 and ordered to pay £7356 in costs.
In mitigation, the firm said it cooperated with the investigation and has now installed extensive guarding around the machine, which includes key-operated access to the paint booth.
After the hearing, inspector Fotheringham added: “While I welcome the fact that the company has now provided extensive guarding and improved safety systems, it is deeply regrettable that its procedures at the time of the incident fell so far below accepted standards.”
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