Horror finger injury payouts a warning to employers, says law firm

A leading law firm is urging employers whose staff work with machinery to ensure their employees hands are properly protected after two horror injuries led to recent prosecutions.

Mace & Jones law firm said the cases highlighted the severe dangers posed to workers by moving machinery. In the first case a Yorkshire company was fined £3,000 when one of its employees had his index finger cut off below the first knuckle by a rotating valve when he placed his arm into an inspection hole. Due to the dangers posed by the rotating valve access to that part of the machine it should not have been possible for the employee to insert his hand.

In a similar case, a Lincolnshire company was fined £10,000 when an employee, whilst investigating a fault in a machine, got his hand trapped in the drive pulley when the motor suddenly started. The injuries sustained were so severe that they resulted in amputation of one of his fingers. Again, the part of the machine where he caught his hand should not have been accessible to him.

Mace & Jones personal injury specialist Jeremy Bradshaw said employers too often failed to have adequate safety procedures in place.

"Employers must ensure risk assessments are in date, dangerous parts of machinery are fenced off and that there is a culture of employees following safety measures," he said. "With the recession there is a temptation for employers to cut corners but this will inevitably place their employees at a greater risk of injury. Injuries mean not only prosecution by the HSE but also higher insurance premiums."