Labourer's hand dragged onto machine blade - Two construction companies hit by HSE fines totalling £45K

Published: 25 February 2011
by JOSH LOEB

TWO construction companies have been fined a total of £45,000 after a labourer’s hand was pulled into a bladed machine.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carried out an investigation into Kent Commercial Finishings Ltd and LCS Interiors Ltd after the incident on July 14 last year at a building site in the Wilton Plaza development, Victoria.

Construction worker Sean Forsythe, 22, was using a pump to apply concrete to the floor of a building when the hose got caught in the rotating blades of the mixer, pulling his hand into the machine. City of London Magistrates’ Court heard how Mr Forsythe suffered severe cuts to his right hand, leaving him with permanent damage.

The HSE found the screed pump had no safety grill to stop the blades when it was lifted. 

The court heard another grill had broken off a similar pump a few months earlier but was not replaced – despite a written procedure being in place. HSE prosecuted the contractor who had hired the pump, Kent Commercial Finishings Ltd. They were fined £3,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,000 at an earlier sentencing.

LCS Interiors Ltd, of Little Burrow, Welwyn Garden City, were responsible for the weekly inspection of the plant and machinery and were also prosecuted. The company were fined a total of £10,000.