Automatic pallet machine nails mans arm

Posted on October 16^th 2009

£3,500 was the amount in fines a builders' merchant in Herefordshire had to pay after a lack of health and safety requirements left a worker injured.

The man, who worked for Pontrilas timber and builders merchants, was required to manually input wood in to an automatic machine which assembles pallets. The workplace accident occurred when the worker was inputting a piece of wood and the machine started without any warning, pulling his arm in and nailing it to a pallet.

Guards should be placed on machines that require an automatic feed, and on this occasion the company had failed to do so, had there been one the man's arm would not have been caught.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the company for failing to comply with the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. They were also ordered to pay £8,900 in costs.

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