Walsall company is fined after fingers lost
A company has been fined £8,000 after a teenage apprentice on work experience lost four fingers in an accident.
Joshua Watson-Wood had been working at W.P Metals Ltd, in Aldridge, on February 16 this year when his fingers got caught in a piece of machinery called a swager.
Representatives from W.P Metals, based in Westgate, pleaded guilty to breaching section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work act, by failing to ensure the safety of people not in their employment.
Mr Watson-Wood, who was 18 at the time, was an apprentice on a three-month placement, Walsall Magistrates Court heard yesterday. But Miss Eve-Marie Edwards, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, said Mr Watson-Wood's fellow worker had not been fully trained on the machine.
In defence, Miss Hazel Padmore disputed Mr Watson-Wood's co-worker had not been trained on the swager but accepted "the company had not brought to his attention the additional risks of when it was being operated by two people". W.P Metals Ltd was also ordered to pay costs of £2,740.
