Perth bakery firm fined after accident

Dec 17 2010 by Katy Gordon, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A PERTH-based bakery chain was fined £4000 at Perth Sheriff Court this week after an employee was seriously injured when his hand became trapped in machinery.

The Tower Bakery, of Shore Road, admitted contravening the Health and Safety at Work Act – in two respects.

They had failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment in relation to the operation of a dough sheeter machine at their premises between October 1, 2007, and March 23, 2008.

Nor had they provided their confectionery manager, TJ Johnston, with sufficient training regarding its cleaning.

Depute fiscal Sally Clark told the court that the prosecution had resulted from an accident at the Shore Road premises on March 23, 2008.

The dough sheeter was used to roll marzipan or coloured icing and the manager had been working alone that day and had been boiling some glucose on a cooker.

He then started to clean the machine using a metal scraper but hadn’t isolated the power.

As he did so, the glucose began to boil. Instead of putting the lever into the neutral position, he pushed it too far, reversing the direction of the rollers – and his hand and the scraper were drawn into the machine.

The skin was being pulled from the three middle fingers of his right hand but he managed to hit the emergency stop button and extricate himself.

As he did so, he could see the bones of the affected fingers.

He was taken to the A&E Department at PRI where painkillers were administered.

He suffered a “crushing injury” to his hand and the wound was dressed.

He later saw a hand specialist and attended for physiotherapy before returning to work three weeks later – but had some initial difficulty with certain tasks.

Mr Johnston had watched previous employees cleaning the machine in that way and had copied them, despite never having been given any training in that task.

Solicitor Andrew Forsyth, for the Tower Bakery, said that the proper way for the rollers to be cleaned was for the power to be isolated.

He said the company had a health and safety policy in place but had failed to ensure a risk assessment had been carried out.

“Tower Bakery have taken the accident very seriously and have learned from it,” he added.

He submitted that the accident had taken place through “an unfortunate chain” of events which were “wholly unpredictable”.

He also asked that their “previously unblemished” health and safety record be taken into account.

The company, which has 12 retail stores in Tayside and Clackmannan, made a net profit of just under £35,000 in the year ended October 31, 2009, on a turn-over of £4.2 million.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said although the company was a first offender, a significant penalty was appropriate.

The maximum fine he could have imposed was £20,000.