Company fined after worker's hand amputated

Friday 14 September 2001

The Occupational Safety and Health Service (OSH) has welcomed the sentencing of a Hastings company after an accident where a 19-year-old’s hand had to be amputated.

Tomoana Pelt Processors Limited was fined $9,000 this week and ordered to pay reparation of $300 to the victim. $8,000 of the fine went to the victim.

The prosecution by OSH was in relation to an accident where a worker’s hand was trapped in a fleshing machine at the company’s factory. The victim’s hand was de-gloved, and he also sustained compound fracture, dislocation, strain and sprain.

The injuries caused such serious harm that it was necessary to amputate the worker’s entire hand. He had been working at the company for just over two months.

"In this case the judge said that the fleshing machine was an inherently and manifestly dangerous device of which no one in this particular workplace could be unaware,’ said Murray Thomson, Service Manager, Hawkes Bay, Occupational Safety and Health.

"This accident has had a huge impact on a young man, aged only 19.

"The company were found not to have taken all practicable steps to ensure that the victim was adequately trained.

"In the last months there have been a number of young people killed and injured in the workplace.

"Employers must ensure that workplace hazards are identified and controlled correctly."