Brighouse Work Accident Claim

Mr B a resident of Huddersfield was working as a machine operative in Brighouse when he was faced with an accident at work.

It was during the night shift, which had commenced at 10 pm and was due to finish at 6 am, the accident occurred in the early hours of the morning whilst he was operating a machine. The machine called a “Harveys” was old and the only one in existence at his employer’s premises.

The machine operated in such a way that there was a roll of poly film which came from a reel and it moved along the machine on a series of rollers. These rollers came down from above the roller that contained the adhesive tape. Once the bag was cut to size the tape was then put onto the bag when it passed over a heat bar so that the bag could be sealed.

On the night of the accident, Mr B had noticed that some adhesive tape had got stuck on one of the rollers. He needed to remove it so he waited until he was going to add another reel of poly film before getting rid of it. To do this he stopped the machine as he had been trained and opened a glass window to get access to the roller onto which the tape was stuck. He then had to judder the rollers forward by starting them again so that he could get to the tape to release it.

As Mr B did this the little finger of his right hand was taken by the machine and trapped under the roller. He was unable to move the roller backwards as it was operated by a key which was kept by the maintenance staff for some reason. If the key had been left in place, he would have been able to operate it to move the machine backwards and remove the tape this way which would have stopped there being any chance of his finger being pulled under the roller. He had been told by an experienced operator to do this when he was first shown how to use the machine rather than getting in touch with the maintenance staff to get rid of any tape that became stuck on the rollers

This was clearly an unsafe system of work and lead to an injury which could have been avoided if his employer had done a risk assessment.

The consequences and how we helped:

After the accident, Mr B was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary but was transferred to Bradford Royal infirmary and remained there for a number of days. The accident meant he was off work due to a fracture to the right little finger as he is a right hand dominant and was given a further 4 weeks sick note. My B was unable to attend the gym for several months and ended up with a T- shaped scar over this finger.

Our dedicated team at Grieves Solicitors were able to obtain an early admission of fault from Mr B’s employers and as our client experienced both personal injury and financial losses, we helped Mr B obtain Just over £10,000 in compensation for his Work Injury Claim, which he was very pleased with. Mr B was very happy with the service he received from Grieves Solicitors and indicated that his overall experience with Grieves Solicitors was excellent.

If you have been injured in an accident that was not your fault please get in touch with Yorkshire’s leading No Win No Fee Injury Claim Solicitors at Grieves Solicitors.