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Worker suffers multiple fractures at international paper firm

DS Smith Packaging Ltd. has been fined after an employee suffered breaks to his arm and ribs in machinery at a Lincolnshire factory.

The 27-year-old man, who does not wish to be named, was being trained to use a re-winder - a rotating spool that winds corrugated cardboard packaging into a roll - at DS Smith Packaging's plant at Windsor Road, Louth, when the incident happened on 9 June 2010.

A second member of staff was showing the employee how to attach the cardboard to the spool when his fingers became trapped. The second man, unaware of what had happened, then started the machine which threw the employee over the top.

He broke his right arm in several places and fractured his ribs. He was off work for a year and now has pins and plates in his arm. He has since returned to work for the company.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found there was no safe system of work in place and the incident could have been easily prevented.

DS Smith Packaging Ltd., of Lower Cookham Road, Maidenhead, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Lincoln Crown Court fined the firm £50,000 and ordered it to pay costs of £8,244.

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