Steel Firm are Fined £150,000 After Fatality

Posted on June 1, 2015

A steel foundry firm has been fined £150,000 after one of its workers died after being struck in the face with an abrasive wheel disk which had exploded from a hand held grinding machine.

Many unsafe practices were found and previous near misses prior to the fatality had not been investigated thoroughly.
Stuart Stead, 49 was using the hand held grinder while working on a casting at H.I Quality Steel Castings in Sheffield on March 7^th 2012. As he used the tool the disk fitted to it suddenly exploded propelling fragments across his work bay one ending up 10 metres away. As the grinder had no guard, the pieces were forcibly expelled across the work space and a shard went straight through Mr Stead’s visor and hit him in the mouth. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The HSE said the excessive speed of the grinder coupled with the addition of a non standard attachment placed on the tool had added stress on the disk way beyond its capacity resulting in this catastrophic failure.

The disk was rated for 6650 rpm but the grinder was running at 12,000 rpm

The court uncovered a number of previous incidents where disks had come off grinders however none of these were mentioned in the monthly safety meetings held on the site some of the previous incidents included;

• In 2011 a 30mm diameter disk disintegrated and went through the foundry roof.
• A sand disk attached to a grinder using an adapter shattered and put a hole in a bench and also shattered a light 30 feet up.
• A disk flew off a grinder which Mr Stead was using and was never found.
• A cutting disk bounced off the stomach of another worker
• And the week prior to the fatality, a piece came off a disk Mr Stead was using and hit another worker under the eye.

Some initial training was given however the employees did not understand rotation speeds of machines versus disks and had free access to a wide range of tools and accessories, some which were incompatible and unguarded.

The near misses should have been a massive warning flag for the company.

H.I. Quality Steel Castings Ltd were find £150,000 and ordered to pay £24,000 in costs after admitting to a breach of section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.