Company fined $24k after worker's hand crushed

A Lower Hutt company has today been fined $24,000 and ordered to pay reparation of $8000 after a worker was seriously injured when he put his hand into an improperly-guarded machine.

In March this year the employee of Dexion Commercial, which trades as Precision, put his hand into an opening in the guard to get a metal strip into place on the machine. While he was doing this he accidentally touched the foot pedal and the press crushed his hand.

Precision was convicted of on one charge of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992.

"This accident could easily have been prevented had the machine been properly guarded," said Department of Labour central regional manager, Brett Murray.

Employers had a legal duty to ensure that adequate guards are in place to prevent injuries, he said.

"Sadly these types of accidents are happening all too often because employers don't seem to be taking machine guarding seriously."

The department has guidelines available on its website on the safe use of machinery. Had Precision followed these guidelines their worker might not have been injured, Mr Murray said.

Since the accident the company had addressed the guarding issues on the machine to prevent a similar accident from happening.

- NZPA