Dangerous guillotine severs man's fingers - Employer liable

Centriforce Products was ordered to pay almost £5,000 for breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations. The regulation stipulates that employers must prevent employees accessing and working with dangerous machine parts.

Machine operator Wesley Dickinson had been working on a plastics cutting machine. A faulty alarm on the automatic guillotine led to Mr Dickinson reaching in to clear a blockage in the machine, only for the cutter to come down on his hand. Four fingers were severed in the accident.

Surgeons managed to re-attach two of the fingers. Due to the injuries Mr Dickinson will be unable to perform manual work in the foreseeable future.

The Health and Safety Executive concluded that "the company should have had a guard on the guillotine to prevent workers from reaching the blade...and the power (should) cut if the guard was opened."