Worker injures hand in cropping machine

Worker injures hand in cropping machine

A company producing lights for trucks has been fined after a workers’ hand was injured in a cropping machine.

Sandwell Magistrates’ Court heard how an agency worker was working at Truck-Lite Company Limited’s Waterfall Lane site in Cradley Heath when he was injured by a cropping machine. The machine unexpectedly began to operate while his hands were in the ‘danger zone’, between the press and die set.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident, which occurred on 3 October 2013, found that Truck-Lite Company Limited had failed to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machine or stop the movement of those dangerous parts.

Truck-Lite Company Limited, of Waterfall Lane, Cradley Heath, West Midlands, was fined a total of £3,500 and ordered to pay costs of £1,569 after pleading guilty to an offence under Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.