A young worker at tyre manufacturing giant Goodyear Dunlop suffered a fractured skull during maintenance work on a faulty machine at the firm’s factory in Wolverhampton, magistrates have heard.
Karl Illidge, 17, was working as an apprentice engineer at the site in Bushbury, when the incident took place on 11 September 2009. He was working with two other maintenance engineers to repair a tyre press, which had failed to open at the end of its cycle.
The maintenance team attempted to manually override the machine’s control panel but this had no effect, so they decided to call for an electrician, who was working in another part of the factory. When he arrived he disconnected an electrical coil from the controls and pressed the machine’s back press. This made the machine’s internal bladder re-energize and burst, which caused the lid to blow off the press with great force and a loud bang.
Mr Ilidge was startled by the noise and leapt backwards in shock, but in doing so he struck his head on an adjacent tyre-spreading machine. He was unable to return to work for two months owning to his injuries.
The HSE’s investigation found that the maintenance workers were new to the company and had not received training on how to repair the machine. They had only been given an instruction manual for it, but this was written in Italian.
HSE inspector Amarjit Kalay said: “This incident was entirely preventable had there been a safe system in place to ensure that services to the press had been isolated prior to the start of the maintenance work. It is also clear that the maintenance team were insufficiently trained to carry out the necessary diagnostic work on this piece of machinery.”
Goodyear Dunlop Tyres UK Ltd appeared in Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court on 1 November and pleaded guilty to breaching s2(1) of the HSWA 1974. It was fined £18,250 and ordered to pay £4807 in costs.
In mitigation, the firm said it immediately took the press out of commission until the maintenance team had received training on how to safely make repairs. Once the machine was returned to service staff were informed that no repairs should be made unless the machine was isolated.
In August 2008, the company fined £13,500 after pleading guilty to s2(1) of the HSWA 1974, for failing to ensure the safety of its employees at the same factory. This was in relation to an incident inJune 2007, when a worker was hit by an unsecured stack of steel pallets, which fell off a forklift truck.
The Safety Conversation with SHP (previously the Safety and Health Podcast) aims to bring you the latest news, insights and legislation updates in the form of interviews, discussions and panel debates from leading figures within the profession.
Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts, subscribe and join the conversation today!
this could now prove dificult for actors in the pantomime season
BOO!!!! he`s behind you