Health and safety failings lead to company fine

A printing company which failed to maintain safety guards on a piece of machinery, which led to an employee losing part of his finger, has been fined £6,383 after admitting to health and safety breaches.

Polish worker Kamil Podsaidly had the tip of his finger severed and broke his hand in moving rollers after climbing a ladder to clean an ink spillage on the machine, the Hartlepool Mail reports.

The piece of cloth he was using to clean the mess became drawn into the unguarded metal rollers which should have had guards in place to stop the machine from operating the moment a member of staff got near to it.

Hartlepool magistrates' court imposed the financial penalty on the company after it admitted to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act by failing to prevent access to dangerous moving parts of machinery, the news provider claims.

More than 1,200 work-related accidents in the printing industry are reported to the Health and Safety Executive each year.