A company has been fined thousands of pounds after a worker's limb became trapped in a machine and his fingers were torn off.
Tyco Electronics, which is based on Faraday Road, Swindon in Wiltshire, was taken to court over the incident, which took place back in March 2023 and left one worker with life-changing injuries.
The worker, who has chosen not to be named, was cleaning a machine used to manufacture pellets during a night shift on March 7, and had put his left hand inside to clean it when a door fell at the front of the machine and activated the hydraulic ram.
His arm became trapped inside the machine, and he was left with no choice but to tear it free, tearing his nerves and tendons in the process.
The Swindon worker cried out for help and was rushed to the hospital, where he required three operations to reattach his fingers.
The man's life will never be the same again, and even after 10 days in hospital and weekly visits for physiotherapy, he still has no sensation or movement in his fingers.
Three years on from the incident, Tyco Electronics has pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
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In a sentencing at Bristol Magistrates' Court on April 17, the Swindon company was fined £340,000 and ordered to pay additional costs of £5,145.
The court sentencing follows a lengthy investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which found that Tyco Electronics failed to put "suitable and sufficient measures" in place to prevent employees from being put at risk.
The investigation also found that employees had not been provided with sufficient information and instruction on how to use and clean the machine safely.
Training was found to be inadequate, and employees were not suitably supervised.
Tyco Electronics was contacted by the Swindon Advertiser but has declined to comment.
This is not the first time that this company has been sued due to workers' injuries.
In February 2019, the Swindon Advertiser reported that Tyco Electronics was sued by a factory worker who breathed in dangerous fumes.
Tom Heron took Tyco Electronics to tribunal after the judge ruled that the company had failed to keep the factory safe and was too slow to respond to his concerns when he developed an inhalation injury after breathing in fumes from a dryer.
Mr Heron took on the multinational company, also known as TE Connectivity, himself and represented himself in court. He spent months reading up on the case and the law.
The 60-year-old from Royal Wootton Bassett won £28,000.
His case dates back to February 2016, when a dryer was moved around the Swindon factory without its extraction ventilation being replaced. An outside service company then discovered a fault in the dryer and told Tyco to replace its contaminated beds.
Speaking after the most recent hearing, HSE Inspector Emma Preston said: "Machinery accidents during maintenance and cleaning are all too common, often with serious consequences.
“Workers should ensure that machinery is properly isolated from all sources of power so that it cannot restart during the task.
“Incidents like this can and should be prevented by following robust lock-off procedures.”
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