Hi all, we were discussing this at work, about the report in the sun (i know i know), of a guy who was pulled into a conveyer type machine and was badly crushed but survived. Reading it, it made me think about the reasons behind the incident, specifically why a welder would be getting so close to a machine that he would get his overalls caught, what type of guarding would have expected to be inplace, specifically an auto shut off, or at the least an emergency stop button someone could have pressed. However some of the facts were getting questioned here, specifically if he was dragged through a hole the size of a CD case, could he survive, apparently his head went through a larger hole, but if his ribs went through the size of hole, surely his lungs would be badly punctured. The main things that came up at work was the belief that no matter how it happened, i.e. horseplay or poor work practices, it will be seen as an insufficient risk assessment was carried out, and compensation will be paid out, but the odd thing about the story is the guy has returned to work and is trying for a supervisory role. The whole story just read wrong for some reason. However i was just curious about the safety communities thoughts on the incident. I must state i am in no way looking to discuss any issues that may be a legal ongoing case, i was just curious about the thoughts on the story itself.

:) I agree with Rodgerker!! :) The story does sound odd, maybe insurance!!

As i said, this was the Sun, so accuracy was not expected. a hole the size of an A4 sheet is considerably larger, though i still wouldn't like to go through that! I can but hope it was a freak accident, i.e. a guard failed unexpectedly, rather than he was horsing about. I am sure it will appear in the HSE press release on the web in due course.

I wouldn't believe the date that was printed on the cover of the Sun, let alone the contents!