Personal injury advice from
Thompsons Solicitors
Compensation Claim for Man Injured by Dangerous Machinery
21st July 2011
We recently acted in a personal injury claim on behalf of a man who suffered serious injuries to his fingers in an accident at work caused by dangerous machinery.
Accident at Work
Our client, an engineer, was called to repair a broken down machine which stacks materials coming off a printing press. It had not been used for several months, but had been re-started that day without any formal inspection or maintenance. It had already broken down once previously in his shift.
A metal ‘sword’ which moves out then retracts during the stacking process had become jammed in a partially retracted position. When our client attempted to push it back manually, part of the machine activated and the ends of his middle and ring fingers were sheared between the moving components.
He was taken to hospital and an operation was necessary to amputate the tips of both fingers down to the first joint. He had to take time off work to recover and during his recovery he required help from his wife with many simple tasks, such as washing his hair and cutting up food. He was unable to drive, do D.I.Y. or look after his garden while his fingers were healing and the pain continued for some time, making it difficult to sleep. Due to the nature of his injury, the appearance and use of our client’s hand was permanently altered and he was left with scarring.
Although he was paid his basic wage during his absence from work, our client lost out on overtime which he would normally have done and he therefore incurred a loss of earnings.
Personal Injury Claim Against Employer
The claimant felt that his accident was avoidable, as his employer could have provided safer machinery, a safer system of work and additional equipment to assist him with the task.
He had not received any specific training on maintaining the machine and it was not fitted with a safety switch or air dump valve to isolate the power and prevent the mechanism from activating accidentally.
Our client was never shown any risk assessment for the task he was carrying out and he was following the normal accepted practice at his workplace. Additional equipment, such as a push stick, may also have prevented his hand from being pulled into the machine.
He instructed our expert personal injury lawyers to act on his behalf and we began a claim against his employer. Although they did not admit liability they paid out £25,000 in damages, based on our evidence of the claimant’s injury and financial losses.
After our client’s accident, his employer also fitted an additional safety feature to the machine in question to help prevent future accidents.
Injury Claim Advice
If you suffer a personal injury as the result of a factory accident, or any other workplace accident caused by the negligence of someone else, you may be entitled to make an injury claim.
Contact The Legal Line on 0800 0328511, or by completing a claim enquiry form online, for cost-free, confidential accident claim advice from our expert lawyers.
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