Health and safety timeline warns of poorly guarded machinery
On one occasion, a bottling line worker needed life-saving surgery to treat a severed artery when his arm became caught in a poorly guarded machine.
The accident happened while the worker was investigating the cause of a stoppage in the depalletiser machine, which takes empty bottles off a conveyor to be filled at the Brothers Drinks Company.
He required three operations, one of which was described by surgeons as life and limb saving, after the accident.
The Brothers Drinks Company was ordered to pay nearly £23,000 in costs and fines, last month.
For more on these, and 13 other, accidents in the food and drink manufacturing sector over the past year, view interactive timeline below.
Click on the company names for more information on each incident and links to the full stories. Use the zoom tool on the left-hand side of the timeline to trace food and drink manufacturing accidents that have occurred over the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, in another case, one worker was not so lucky.
Fatal accident
31-year old Steven Bennett suffered a fatal accident at recycling firm JFC Plastics.
The most likely cause of death was that he fell into a machine, used to separate bales of plastic bottles, while checking to see if it was running smoothly, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said.
The firm was ordered to pay £240,000 in fines and costs after the accident at its St Helens factory, in October last year.
Other injuries sustained while working in the sector have included a broken leg, a fractured skull, crushed limbs, burns and a number of injuries caused from falls.
On one occasion, a worker was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after failing through the roof of Nestlé’s beverages factory in Dalston, Cumbria.
The man was treated for facial and possible pelvic and leg injuries, following the 30ft fall.
‘Failing to learn from mistakes’
Meanwhile, the British Safety Council (BSC) claimed food and drink manufacturers were failing to learn from previous health and safety mistakes.
Matthew Holder, head of campaigns and engagement at the BSC, told FoodManufacture.co.uk that despite the number of fatalities at work in the UK falling from 172 to 148 in the last year there was still room for improvement because the same causes for injuries were still occurring.
“We see year in year out the same causes of injuries and fatalities – the same mistakes again and again,” he said.
