Company Fined £133,000 After Unguarded Machinery Death
CROWN OFFICE AND PROCURATOR FISCAL SERVICE
NEWS RELEASE
8 FEBRUARY 2012
COMPANY FINED £133,000 AFTER UNGUARDED MACHINERY DEATH
At Glasgow Sheriff Court today, Railcare Ltd were fined £133,000 (reduced from £200,000 on account of their guilty plea) for a breach of Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, following the death of one of their employees on 15 December 2008 at the company’s premises on Charles Street, Springburn. John Smith, a 53-year old employee of the company who had worked at the premises there for some 30 years, died as a result of head injuries sustained whilst working at an axle lathe that had an unguarded chuck.
The company pled guilty to
- failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the risks to employees when cleaning axles on a lathe;
- failing to implement a safe system of work in that the chuck of the lathe was unguarded when employees were working close to it; and
- failing to provide adequate information, instruction, training and supervision on the use of the lathe;
All of these failings led to the death of Mr Smith.
One of the machines which Mr Smith used was a Universal and Production Centre Lathe, referred to at Railcare as the axle lathe.
The axle lathe was somewhere in the region of 25 years old at the time of the incident. Given its age, it did not come with interlocking guarding, but guarding was available for the dangerous parts of the machine and should have been in use. The dangerous part of the lathe was the chuck, which is the part used to clamp and rotate work pieces. This is also the element of the lathe which spins the work piece – at the time of John Smith’s death, the chuck was spinning in an anti-clockwise direction (towards him) at 600 rpm.
One of the jobs which was undertaken in the premises was the cleaning and polishing of sets of wheels from railway vehicles. One of the means by which the axles would be cleaned would be by using the axle lathe and this was the task in which Mr Smith had been involved on the day of his death. Mr Smith had been cleaning the axle by looping a length of emery cloth around it, holding one end in each hand and then operating the lathe at high speed. By then pulling back and applying pressure to the axle surface, paint would be removed from the surface of the axle.
Mr Smith came into contact with the unguarded chuck and sustained the head injuries from which he died.
The subsequent Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation revealed a number of failings which formed the basis of the charge before the court. Their investigation revealed that it was custom and practice to use the axle lathe to clean axles in this way and that this task had never been assessed for the risks it posed to employees. Moreover, none of the processes in place at the premises had identified the lack of a guard on this chuck.
Following the case, Elaine Taylor, Head of the COPFS Health and Safety Division, said:
“This case yet again demonstrates the crucial importance of employers carrying out suitable and sufficient assessment of risks to their employees in the course of their daily work, taking the steps necessary to identify such risks, and thereafter ensuring that safe systems of work are in place and dangerous machinery parts are properly guarded. Railcare failed in each of these respects in relation to the axle lathe.
"As a result, Mr Smith lost his life in an entirely avoidable incident.
“Today our thoughts are with his family.”
HSE inspector Lesley Hammond said after the case:
"This is a tragic incident that need never have happened. Although lathes are common in workplaces throughout the country, they are potentially lethal. A chuck guard should always be in place and safe working practices should always be adhered to.
“In this case, supervision throughout the company failed to act on these matters. This contributed to a working environment which had safety procedures in place on paper, but permitted them to be disregarded in practice."
Ends
Notes to Editors
1) In Scotland the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has sole responsibility for the raising of criminal proceedings for breaches of health and safety legislation. It’s Health and Safety Division has ten specialist prosecutors in a team of 16 based at three units in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Division was officially launched by the Solicitor General in July 2009.
2) The Division deals with all health and safety prosecutions and any cases requiring specialist health and safety input. Some work-related Fatal Accident Inquiries are dealt with by local Procurator Fiscal Offices, with support from the Division as required.
3) The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
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