A worker had to have his entire leg kept in plaster for six
weeks and relied on crutches to walk for four months because of
safety failures by his employer.
In March last year at an ACP (Concrete) factory in Workington,
25-year-old Jamie Graham was helping to thread steel cables through
concrete moulds which were then stretched to a tension of
2,000lbs.
One of the grips failed, letting loose a 200-foot cable which Mr
Graham then went to re-thread. But then another of the grips
failed, releasing another 200-foot cable which impaled his lower
right leg.
Mr Graham was only freed from the 9mm-thick cabling when
firefighters cut him loose, although he had to go to hospital with
part of the steel wire embedded in his shin.
Following the incident, officials from the Health and Safety
Executive discovered that ACP never carried out inspections on the
cable-fixing grips. They also found out that in an average week,
eight of the grips fail to work at the factory in Derwent Howe
Industrial Estate.
Workington Magistrates Court fined the company £15,000 for its
safety failings.