Arboriculture business requires more health and safety training
An 18 year old worker lost his right thumb, the incident happened in September 2011. It occurred at a Hampshire business. The worker was a trainee as a tree surgeon at the arboriculture location. His thumb was severed due to a log splitter.
It is clear that health and safety training was needed at the business. The worker became distracted and this caused him to step on the foot pedal, which in turn caused the splitting blade to lower, harming his thumb. The machine has to have operators that manually hold the logs in place. The blade is then lowered, but unfortunately for this young man his hand was caught. This worker was off work for a month. It is troublesome for him to fasten buttons or write.
Health and safety at work is essential to the safety of one’s employees. It is true that the individual was a trainee, but a supervisor could have been present to ensure no incident happened. What was truly a problem for the company was the splitter’s failings that did not comply with the newest regulations for safety. The company has been fined 4,000 pounds. They also had to pay 2,000 pounds in court costs. There are some simple things one can do to keep a business safe, such as making certain all equipment complies with new regulations. A failure to ensure equipment is in proper condition will lead to health and safety fines, and in the worst case injury of employees.
