Teen worker, 16, has finger sliced off on his first day at dog food factory
A food factory boss has been spared jail after a teenage boy had his finger sliced off on his first day working at a dog food factory.
Gary Pitchford, director of Finer By Nature, was handed a six-month custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months following the horror accident. It comes after a boy, who was 16 at the time, lost his finger whilst helping another employee at the factory during his first day on the job. The teen was hired shortly after leaving school and started the job at the site on Whitestone Business Park in Hereford on July 15, 2020.
Kidderminster Magistrates Court heard that the boy's middle finger on his right hand was sliced off while operating a food processing machine, which is used to package dog food. He said he experiences "flashbacks and phantom pains in my finger" and said the accident heavily impacted his social life.
The boy, who is now 19, was told to stand on a step ladder and put his hands into the hopper bowl to scrape meat into the base, which housed dangerous moving machinery parts. He was instructed to do so despite there being an interlock guard on the machine, the court heard on October 5 this year.
The new starter was hospitalised for six days and had to undergo two operations to close off the wound after his finger was severed. He said in a statement: “The emotional effect on me has been huge. At 16 years old I felt so self-conscious, and this stopped me socialising, especially around strangers as they would always ask about my stump. I became very snappy with people including my own family because the trauma of what had happened upset me so much, it affected my mood and behaviour. I was experiencing flashbacks and phantom pains in my finger at night-time. Any sound that went snap caused a major flashback because I remember hearing the bone in my finger snap in the machine. I have never returned to the place where this happened, I actually don’t even go down the road where the factory is, the thought of it all still makes me feel sick and faint.”
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A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the company had failed to make suitable and sufficient risk assessments. The investigation also discovered that Mr Pitchford had neglected to manage the safety of employees using the machine. Finer By Nature pleaded guilty to breaching several Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and and the Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The food company was handed a £34,000 fine and ordered to pay £4,564.15 in costs. Gary Pitchford, of Whitestone Business Park, Whitestone, Hereford, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. He was sentenced to a six-month custodial sentence for each of the three offences to run concurrently, suspended for 12 months and 180 hours of unpaid work.
HSE inspector Sara Lumley, said: “This incident occurred on the first day of this young person’s work. The machine was adequately guarded, and correct use of the guard would easily have been prevented this incident. The risks should have been identified before the machine was used. Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery. The sentence handed out should act as a reminder to all employers that they will be punished if they don’t protect their workers.”
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