An employee of tyre manufacturer Pirelli sustained major injuries when his arm became trapped in a tyre-testing machine, which was known to be temperamental when restarted after the Christmas holidays.
The 57-year-old from Carlisle, who does not wish to be named, broke his left arm in three places, was off work for four months, and still has difficulty moving his shoulder following the incident at the Dalston Road plant, in Carlisle, on 3 January 2012.
Pirelli Tyres Ltd was prosecuted by the HSE after an investigation identified poor safety procedures in relation to maintenance work on the machine.
Carlisle Magistrates’ Court heard that the machine, which lubricates, inflates and then measures tyres, acquired a fault when it was switched back on following the Christmas shutdown.
In trying to rectify the fault, the worker switched it to manual mode and removed one of the guards in the lubricating part of the machine. The employee returned the machine to automatic mode, but failed to reinstall the guard. The machine processed two tyres successfully before becoming stuck again and, as the worker reached back into the machine in a reflex movement, it restarted, trapping his left arm.
The HSE investigation found that the fault had occurred several times in the past after the machine was restarted following previous Christmas shutdowns, but Pirelli had failed to carry out a specific risk assessment for this maintenance work.
There was also limited supervision of the maintenance employees, poor knowledge of the company’s written health and safety procedure for maintenance work, and no system in place to assist the company in checking that its safe working-procedures guidelines were being followed in practice.
HSE inspector Michael Griffiths told SHP that the company has three employees in its health and safety department and around 120 maintenance staff, each of whom carry out between one and 10 maintenance tasks a day. The company had no feedback at all from its maintenance staff on what they were doing in respect of their point-of-work risk assessments and no idea, therefore, if it was fulfilling its legal duty.
Appearing before magistrates on 21 August, Pirelli Tyres Ltd, based Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £4330 in prosecution costs after pleading guilty to a breach of s2(1) of the HSWA 1974.
Inspector Griffiths concluded: “Although Pirelli did have written safe-working procedures, they were not effective [on this maintenance issue] because the employees were either unaware of them, or weren’t following them, and no effort was made to check that the procedures were being followed.
“This incident could have been avoided if Pirelli had done more to make sure that risks were being properly assessed and its employees were following safe working practices.”
A spokesperson for the company said: “Pirelli Tyres Ltd deeply regrets the injury to its long-serving employee. The company is, and always has been, committed to ensuring high levels of health and safety for all its employees.
“As such, it was encouraging for Pirelli that the court recognised the significant investment the company had made, and continues to make, in health and safety provision, including the improvements made across the Carlisle factory, which exceed the statutory requirements.”
Prior to the incident the company was also in the process of upgrading machines with see-through guards, so that faults could be identified without having to remove them. The company has since rewritten its procedures and retrained all staff, as well as making improvements on supervision and auditing.
The Safety Conversation Podcast: Listen now!
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!