Amputation on recycling line leads to £1.275m fine

Waste disposal firm Mid UK Recycling has been prosecuted after a worker’s arm was dragged into a conveyor belt, which led to a shredder.

IOSH Magazine reported on a case brought against Mid UK Recycling, since sold to another recycling firm, fined £800,000 following a man having to have his arm amputated above the elbow, as a direct result of breaches of Health and Safety legislation designed to keep workers safe.  In the subject case the firm had simply removed safety interlocks allowing employees to access dangerous parts of machinery.  The man’s arm was dragged into a conveyor and roller mechanism.  The company had been the subject of an earlier prosecution in 2017, following a fatality when an agency worker was dragged into an industrial shredder.

Time and again people’s lives are put at risk for the sake of failing to observe and implement simple safety rules.

read the IOSH Magazine article here