A North Yorkshire company has been fined under safety laws after a supervisor suffered severe injuries to his hand.
The man had his right hand crushed with two fingers severed when he attempted to clean an air slide under a large machine used for mixing animal feed.
Northallerton Magistrates’ Court was told that the incident happened on 10 August 2010 at A.One Feed Supplements Ltd of North Hill, Dishforth Airfield, Thirsk.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which brought the prosecution, told the court the man had been told by a production worker at the start of his shift that the air slide was not operating, a regular problem owing to a build-up of sticky feed deposits on the slide and runners.
The supervisor went to inspect the machine and decided to clean the slide. After climbing a set of moveable steps, he reached up to undertake the work and was injured as his hand came into contact with dangerous moving parts of the machine.
A. One Feed Supplements Ltd, North Hill, Dishforth Airfield, Thirsk, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) and was fined £15,000 with costs of £2,594.30.