A pre-cast concrete products manufacturer has been prosecuted after a worker was killed when he became trapped by machinery at the company's site.

CPM Group Limited of Mells Road, Mells, Somerset, has been fined £660,000 with over £14,563 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Bath Magistrates' Court heard how 43-year-old Jeffery Baulf, a maintenance fitter employed by CPM, was carrying out work on the company's machine on 03 October 2016.

However, during the work a conveyor started moving and Mr Baulf suffered fatal injuries when he became trapped.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found CPM had not implemented procedures to ensure machinery was isolated before starting maintenance work.

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The Court also head the maintenance task was authorised by Mr Baulf's supervisor, however the required control measures were not checked before work started as the procedure required.

Access to dangerous moving parts of the machines at the site was generally controlled by enclosures which prevented access to the danger zones.  Access into the enclosures was generally controlled by a special key system which should have made sure machinery was isolated and safe to work around when people entered the enclosure.

HSE told the Court when the site was inspected after the incident, a spare key was discovered which meant that access to machinery in the incident area was possible without turning off and isolating the machine.

HSE also discovered there was insufficient supervision over the isolation of machines; CPM's procedures for safe maintenance work were not consistently understood or applied, pointing to deficiencies in instruction and training; it was common for people to access dangerous areas while machines were running; and there were other spare keys which were easily accessible.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Leo Diez said the incident was easily preventable and "the risk should have been identified".

"Employers should make sure they apply effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery," he said.

"Maintenance work should only be carried out when the piece of plant / equipment is isolated and confirmed safe. There should not be any spare keys to captive key systems."

(LM)