Fingertips severed in horror accident
A Victorian metal fabricator has been fined $25,000 after a worker lost the tips of four fingers in a workplace incident.
Collins Metal Fabrications Pty Ltd, based in Kilsyth, about 36km east of Melbourne’s CBD, was convicted in Ringwood Magistrates‘ Court on April 27 over the incident in February 2022.
The worker slipped while trying to retrieve a bit of metal that had become stuck in a guillotine, causing the tips of their index and middle fingers on both hands to be amputated.
Despite emergency surgery, the worker suffered permanent damage to the digits.
Collins Metal Fabrications Pty Ltd was found guilty of failing to provide a working environment that was safe and without risks to health and failing to provide or maintain plant or systems of work that were safe and without risks to health.
They were fined $25,000, and also ordered to pay costs of $3,756.
WorkSafe Victoria Executive Director of Health and Safety Narelle Beer said the worker‘s life had forever changed because his employer failed to install guarding.
“Installing and maintaining safety guarding on machinery is an absolute non-negotiable because without it, terrible and life altering outcomes, as in this case, can result,” said Dr Beer.
“There is absolutely no excuse for an employer failing to protect workers from dangerous machinery and WorkSafe will not hesitate to prosecute those who do.”
