On 5 September 2017, Teesside Magistrates’ Court heard how the employee was walking along the factory floor at the company’s site on the Oakesway Trading Estate when his leg became trapped between an automated vehicle and a conveyor.
The vehicles, known as transfer cars, are used to move products around the factory, which specialises in cardboard box manufacturing, and onto a conveyor system.
An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found that although the company purchased the Hartlepool site in 2008, it had failed to assess the risk of injury from contact with the transfer cars until nine years later.
An assessment was carried out by an external consultant and given to the business in August 2017, only a month prior to the incident, which highlighted several areas where remedial action was required.
It made it clear how far short the site was from complying with the company’s own group-wide material handling system standard.
The business had failed to ensure that the standard was adopted at the Hartlepool site and very little had been done to control the risks associated with the transfer cars.
Saica Pack UK pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £60,000 with £1,512.89 in costs.
HSE inspector Jonathan Wills said: “A worker was left with serious life-changing injuries because of this incident. Injuries which could have very easily been avoided, had the recommendations made in the assessment been acted upon.”
A spokesman for Saica Pack said: “Our sympathies are with our colleague who was injured as a result of this incident and we deeply regret that our standards fell short on this occasion.
“The health and safety of our employees is of paramount importance. We have put measures in place to ensure the risks leading to this accident are controlled to the highest industry standards.”
“We are committed to working to the highest industry standards of safety in order to protect our employees. We will continue to undertake ongoing risk assessments to ensure our sites and equipment exceed health and safety policy guidelines.”
