A manufacturing company based in Gloucester has been fined after an incident at its site resulted in Petr Jelinek having his fingers and part of his palm severed.
Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court heard how Petr Jelinek, an employee of Mercury Specialist Frames Limited was in the process of using an Omga chop saw when the blade fell onto his right hand, severing the fingers of his right hand above the knuckles.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident which occurred on 2 August 2016 found that the company failed to provide sufficient information and instruction, and there were no risk assessments or safe systems of work in place.
Mercury Specialist Frames Limited of Goodrich Business Park, Gloucester pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company has been fined £10,000.00 and ordered to pay costs of £2057.72.
Speaking after the hearing HSE inspector Tania Nickson said: “Those in control of work have a responsibility to devise safe methods of working and to inform, instruct and train their workers in the safe system of working.”
“If a suitable safe system of work had been in place prior to the incident, the serious injuries sustained by the employee could have been prevented.”
Notes to Editors:
- The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We prevent work-related death, injury and ill health through regulatory actions that range from influencing behaviours across whole industry sectors through to targeted interventions on individual businesses. These activities are supported by globally recognised scientific expertise. hse.gov.uk[1][1]
- More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at:
www.legislation.gov.uk/ 
[2][2]
- HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk[3][3]