Safety Director Resigned One Month Prior to Workplace Fatality
A company safety director resigned because he was certain that a serious workplace accident would occur. One month later, David Lenihan’s fears were realized when a worker was fatally crushed in a machine.
Duco International Ltd., based in Salford, England, has been fined the British equivalent of $318,000 for failing to ensure the health and safety of a worker and failing to conduct a risk assessment. The company was also ordered to pay costs equivalent to about $69,000.
Worker Mitesh Prasher, 24, died at a Duco plant near London on Jan. 15, 2008, while operating a machine used to check rolls of rubber and cloth for flaws. Co-workers heard Prasher cry out and found him unresponsive with his left arm, shoulder, head and torso trapped between a rubberized blanket and a roller. He died at the scene.
An investigation by the United Kingdom’s safety authority, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), found that the company had not assessed the hazards of using the machine and that proper machine guarding wasn’t in place.
Furthermore, Duco International Ltd. is said to have failed to provide sufficient training to workers using the machine.
“This needless tragedy is typical of what can happen when health and safety management systems fail,” says HSE Inspector Ray Kelly. “Had the hazards been assessed, the lack of any guarding would have been highlighted and this death could have been avoided.”
Info to go: Read more about machine guarding in the Info to Go safety links here
