A window manufacturer has been fined £100,000 after a teenage worker had two fingers severed by a cross-cutting saw.
The 19-year-old was working for Ford Windows Limited at the company’s site in Sheffield when the incident occurred.
He had loaded a cross-cut saw with a length of windowsill, which had been stored outside in the rain. As he went to cut the windowsill, his hand slipped off the wet workpiece into the unguarded part of the blade, resulting in severing parts of two fingers on his left hand.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the company had not conducted a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the cross-cut saw, failed to identify the need to adjust the nose guard of the saw to minimise the amount of blade exposed, and failed to identify the need to dry the materials before cutting.