FIRM FINED & ISSUED 12 PROHIBITION NOTICES

[brothermagrew]

Coffee break saves a Worker's Life
A rubber manufacturer has been fined £10,000 after a Manchester worker narrowly escaped death in a factory explosion. Dave Lomas, 56, was returning from a coffee break when he saw a five-foot iron girder fly through the factory, smashing his workstation into pieces. He would normally have been at his desk at the time of the explosion but on 19 February 2008, the day of the explosion, had left it earlier than usual to make a drink. Trafford Magistrates' Court heard that an autoclave - a high-pressure machine used to manufacture rubber rollers - at Moseley Rubber Company Ltd exploded after not being properly maintained. The force of the blast shot an iron girder across the factory and lifted the cement sheet roof off the building, which then fell back into place, bending all the internal roof supports. Dave, who worked as a machine operator in the factory, suffered injuries to his chest and arm in the explosion. The factory closed down following the incident and Dave has been unable to return to work. He said: 'It just happened that, on that day, I'd got to work ten minutes earlier than normal so had set up my machine and gone to make a coffee before the explosion. I was walking back to my workstation when the force of the explosion blew me back about 15 feet. If I'd got to work at my usual time then I'd have been killed without a doubt. The girder would have cut me in half.' The company pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000 by failing to arrange a routine inspection of the machine and by failing to maintain it. It was ordered to pay a maximum magistrates' court fine of £10,000 for the two offences and an additional £8,153 towards the cost of the prosecution. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) also issued a total of 12 prohibition notices when HSE inspector Matt Greenly visited the factory as part of the investigation, banning the use of other machines that had also not been inspected.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2010/coi-nw ... rubber.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DGP1]

I can't believe they let him away from his work area to make a cup of coffee