An employee’s arm was severed by a machine at a scrap metal recycling facility in Rainham.
Elena Troia had put her hand through an unguarded rotary valve to remove a blockage in a catalytic converter sampling machine.
But the valve closed, trapping and severing her right arm which then had to be amputated.
The incident took place on June 12, 2021, at F.J. Church and Sons Ltd’s recycling facility in Manor Way.
F.J. Church and Sons have now been fined £200,000 after a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found they failed to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery.
HSE inspector Marcus Pope said: “Every year, a significant proportion of accidents, many of them serious and sometimes fatal, occur as a result of poorly guarded work equipment.
“In this case this was a wholly avoidable incident, caused by the failure to guard dangerous parts. Had the company added suitable guarding to the outlet of the machine, this life-changing injury would not have occurred.”
At Stratford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (March 5) the company pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
As well as being fined, the company was ordered to pay £5,125.37 in costs.
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