Court Summary - at a glance

Date of offence:
20 August 2014
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Final decision date:
 
Fine imposed:
$42,000

Safety lessons learned:
  1. Ensure guillotines are adequately guarded.
  2. Ensure an effective method is in place for checking the machine’s guarding prior to operating.
  3. Implement and maintain an auditing process specific to all guarding on the Machine and to regularly inspect the Machine to ensure guarding is in place and integrally safe.

Defendant name:
The Mighty Bakery Limited
 
Industry:
Manufacturing
 
Date of offence:
20 August 2014
 
Facts in brief:
The Defendant company operates a bakery business. The Defendant owns a Dual Pitch Pallet System Pie Line Machine (‘the Machine’) used for creating pie bases. The Machine has a guillotine adjacent to the infeed hopper which slices through the dough separating pressed sheet into individual pastry pieces.

On the day of the incident, the victim had the role of dropping a clump of pastry dough into the infeed hopper of the Machine which would then be guillotined into individual pieces before a conveyor dropped these pieces into a forming tray used to create the pie bases. Prior to the incident, a worker noticed that there was a build-up of pastry along the edge of the out feed conveyor to the side of the guillotine. The victim reached with his hand into the out feed of the guillotine to clear away the pastry dough jammed underneath the guillotine. The victim’s hand got caught in the guillotine. The victim sustained amputation of his middle and ring fingers on his left hand just above the nail wicks.
 
Offence section:
Section 6 Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992
 
Date(s) charged:

Court:
Tokoroa - District Court
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Final decision date:
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Fine imposed:
$42,000
 
Maximum fine available:
$250,000
 
Reparation:
$10,000
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