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Attempt to clean machine fractured worker’s finger

During November 2007, an employee at chocolate chain Thorntons broke her finger while working at a foil-wrapping machine at its premises in Somercotes, Derbyshire.

Thorntons PLC were found guilty of breaching regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and received a fine of £20,000 with £7,680 costs.

The incident happened because the employee attempted to clean the inside of the output chute while the machine was still running. The chute was covered in caramel, but as the cloth she was using became tangled in rotating parts, her right hand was dragged into the machine, fracturing and cutting her finger. She was unable to work for ten weeks.

The machine’s guarding was found to be inadequate, and during the investigation, other machines in the factory were found to require safety improvements, including repairs to existing safeguards or prevention of access to dangerous parts.

An HSE official commented: “Thorntons should never have allowed the machinery guarding to fall below the legal safety standards. It was effectively asking its employees to work on machines that put them at risk of injury. It was entirely foreseeable that the inadequate guarding could lead to injury and even if the employee had not used a cloth, her hand could still have been drawn into the machine while cleaning it. If the company had carried out an adequate risk assessment of its machinery, its workers would not have been put at risk.”

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