Company fined after truck driver suffers severe hand injury

Woodland Environmental has been fined £5,000 after a truck driver suffered a severe hand injury while using unsafe wheel cleaning equipment on a construction site.

In a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution, Westminster Magistrates’ Court was told how the driver was attempting to use a wheel spinner - which removes mud and debris from vehicles before they access public roads - at a golf driving range undergoing renovation close to the A1 Barnet bypass by the Poole-based contractor.

The incident happened in July 2010.

An HSE investigation found that equipment at the site was in poor working order and had been adapted, which forced drivers to adopt an unsafe way of using it.

The driver lost his entire index finger, half of his middle finger and severed the end of his ring finger on his right hand.

It was not possible to reattach the fingers.

The investigation identified that a rope was held taut to hold a brake lever in position, and that as the driver attempted to release this it caught and severed his fingers.

This rope had been attached to the brake lever for several months and had no place on the equipment.

Woodland Environmental was ordered to pay £8,833 in costs after pleading guilty to two separate breaches of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.