A Kent businessman has been sentenced after a worker lost his right forearm when it got caught and mangled in an unguarded tyre-shredding machine.
Mark Anton Arabaje, sole director of now-dissolved company Cartwright Projects Ltd, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after it found he had removed a protective guard from the dangerous machine only a couple of weeks earlier.[1]
HSE’s investigation identified that Mark Arabaje had removed the metal bucket guard of the shredding machine earlier the same month, thus allowing easy access to the metal teeth.
After the hearing, HSE Inspector Guy Widdowson said:
“Company directors need to take their health and safety responsibilities seriously to prevent such tragic events occurring in the future. They have a significant role to play in protecting workers from injury at work; and this case demonstrates that such incidents can and do lead to directors being prosecuted if there is evidence of their consent, connivance or neglect to breaches in the law.”
An employer is under a duty to take reasonable care of its employees’ health and safety, and has a duty to ensure the safety of its employees. This standard requires the employer to assess the potential risk of injury against the harm it would cause the employee and the cost of putting safety precautions in.
An employer must provide safe premises, a safe place to work, safe plant, material and equipment and a safe system of working.
If you have suffered an injury, caused by lack of safety equipment or faulty work equipment, then contact our team today at Ringrose Law where we can advise you if you have a claim..
We work hard to ensure that our clients who are failed by their employers get the compensation they deserve.
*Remember always fill in the accident book and report any incidences of a near miss to your employer*