Prosecution Details

Being an employer, failed to ensure that measures were provided to prevent, as far as practicable, the use of plant, namely a drymix concrete batching plant conveyor, in a manner that could render the plant a hazard to any person at the workplace, in that, did not provide adequate guarding to the conveyor to prevent any person operating the conveyor from using the conveyor in an unsafe manner.

The employee was mixing dry concrete when he found the conveyor belt slipping due to a tear. He tried to tension the belt by adjusting the tension bolts using a spanner but to no avail. Using the spanner, he then forced blue metal stones between the belt and drive roller hoping to improve the traction. As he was doing so, his right hand was dragged between the roller and belt causing muscle and tissue damage to the hand.

The employer by failing to adequately guard the conveyor allowed the employee to interfere with and use the plant in an unsafe manner resulting in severe injury to his right hand.

The defendant pleaded guilty.

The Magistrate accepted mitigating evidence but stressed that a lack of foresight should not be canvassed as a defence. The Magistrate commented that training should emphasise safety first, because a company's workforce is only as good as its least able employee.