Timber company fined $10,000 for finger amputation

A timber company has been ordered to pay $10,000 in reparations to a former employee who amputated two of his fingers. File photo / Alan Gibson

A timber company has been ordered to pay $10,000 in reparations to a former employee who amputated two of his fingers in an inadequately guarded saw machine.

The worker lost the tips of his index and middle finger when he accidentally started the saw after putting his hand under its guard on July 17 last year.

Lakeland Timber Processors was today convicted of breaching the Health and Safety in Employment Act and ordered to pay reparations by the Rotorua District Court.

Its decision found the saw machine was not properly guarded.

No fine was handed down as the company has gone into liquidation.

The Department of Labour Bay of Plenty service manager Murray Thompson said the serious injuries suffered by the process worker were avoidable.

"We see far too many of these types of accidents - every year hundreds of New Zealand workers are injured because the machines they're working on are either not guarded or the guarding is not adequate. It is unacceptable."

The Department has a three-year project under way to reduce the number of serious harm and fatal accidents from the unsafe use of machinery, he said.