Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Brick maker Michelmersh Brick and Tile Company has been fined after a worker’s leg was crushed.
The company was fined £15,000 after Nikoloz Demetrashvili spent three weeks in hospital with multiple fractures to his right leg in October last year.
The leg was crushed by a poorly guarded machine and the Romsey firm also had to pay almost £5,000 in costs after pleading guilty to breach of two health and safety regulations.
Demetrashvili had been trying to free a blockage in the machine and had disabled the production mode, as instructed, however, a sensor activated while he was in the machine and crushed his leg.
The HSE then served an Improvement Notice to the firm, which complied by removing a switch that allowed a pressure mat to be over-ridden, meaning operators could no longer access the machinery while power was running to it.
