Staff Member Gives Ice Cream Firm The Finger

A worker at an ice cream firm lost a finger while cleaning a machine, she assumed was switched off.

10:41 27 March 2015

A 60-year-old employee has lost her left index finger while she was cleaning a machine she assumed was switched off. Because of the incident, which took place at the Knuckle at Drumlan Hall Farm, Tattenhall in 2013, the ice cream firm was fined £7,500. 

 

The Health and Safety Executive said that the worker was not aware that the machine was turned on. Meanwhile, Tattenhall Dairy Products, which makes Cheshire Farm Ice Cream, admitted to two safety failings over the incident.

Following the incident, the company installed an interlocking device designed to automatically turn off the machine when it’s being cleaned. 

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Lorna Sherlock that unless safety measures were taken, it was “almost inevitable” that an employee would forget to check if the machine is turned off. 

The ice cream company, which was found by Chester Magistrate Court of breaching the Provision and Use of Equipment Regulations 1998 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, was ordered to pay costs of more than £11,000.