Pallet turner causes crush injury for 51 year old
51-year-old David Wain suffered serious injuries when a 1.5 tonne pallet of tin plates fell onto his right lower leg and foot when he was employed by Emballator UK at its factory in Bradford. Emballator UK was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £3,769 in full costs.
Mr Wain, a coating assistant at the plant, which manufactures tin cans, had been told to use an older machine to turn the bulk tin plate as a fault had developed on the usual, more modern, pallet turner.
He had no experience of using the older machine and a colleague gave him a demonstration of how to use it and how to load the pallets for turning.
Mr Wain used a forklift truck to pick up a pallet of plates, loaded the machine the way he had been told – wedging the load using empty pallets – and switched it on. Moments later, after the machine turned 180 degrees, he saw the plates and pallets moving. He tried to get out of the way but the full load of metal plates spilled out of the machine in a weighty waterfall, trapping his foot against the floor.
Housebound since
Mr Wain has been housebound since the incident and unable to walk without crutches. He was informed earlier this year by the hospital that his foot and lower leg may need to be amputated.
HSE found Emballator UK had failed to provide both safe equipment and a safe system of work. There was no clamping mechanism to retain the pallet of metal plates within the rotating machine, and no guarding to keep operators from the machine during turning.
In addition, the firm had not identified the risks involved with using the older machine, and in particular the risk of the plates falling out. Mr Wain was not supervised while he used the machine for the first time. No checks were made that he understood the risks and the precautions to take.
