A factory worker has been left permanently disabled and faces having part of his leg amputated after he was horrifically injured at his Bradford workplace, a court heard.

David Wain’s foot was crushed when 1.5 tonnes of metal fell on him as he was operating a machine he had not been trained to use.

Yesterday, his employer, Emballator UK Ltd, of Tyersal, was fined £12,000 by Bradford and Keighley magistrates after it admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.

The accident happened on February 6 last year at the firm’s factory in Tyersal, which manufactures paint cans.

Mr Wain, 51, of Holme Wood, was operating a plate-turner, which turns a pallet stacked with sheet metal upside-down, when the stack collapsed on his foot.

The court heard the machine had been decommissioned in 2009, but had been wired back in because the firm’s newer plate-turner was out of action.

Prosecuting, Health and Safety Executive inspector Andrea Jones said Mr Wain had received no formal training on the older machine.

She said: “Mr Wain hadn’t used this machine before so a colleague took it upon himself to stay a few minutes past the end of his shift to show him how to operate it.”

She said he then used a forklift truck to pick up a pallet of plates, loaded the machine the way he had been told, and switched it on.

She said: “Just as he turned around he saw the load on the pallets moving. He tried to get out of the way but the full load fell on top of him, trapping his foot.”

She said part of Mr Wain’s big toe was severed and the sole of his foot was split.

Surgeons managed to reattach the next two toes and he had plates put into his ankle and 13 screws into his lower leg.

Mrs Jones said Mr Wain spent 11 days in hospital but since then his injury had failed to heal and he remained housebound. She said: “I spoke to Mr Wain several days ago. His foot is facing at the wrong angle, he can’t move his foot or walk on it.

“He is seeing a surgeon with a view to having it amputated from the lower leg.”

Company director Gerard Richard Dibb appeared in court to plead guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Mitigating, Mark Brookes said the machine had since been disposed of and the firm had hired a health and safety manager to oversee work on site.

He said the company had fully complied with the Health and Safety Executive’s investigation and Mr Dibb had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

He said: “There is no suggestion that the injury suffered by Mr Wain wasn’t extremely serious. There is no attempt by the company or myself to hide that fact.”

Chairman of the magistrates, Younis Hussain, said Mr Wain “wasn’t adequately trained or supervised”.

He said: “Obviously this is a life-changing injury and it is going to be permanent.

“He is unable to balance himself or walk on that particular leg.”

Emballator UK Ltd, of City Link Industrial Park, Phoenix Way, Tyersal, was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £3,769 in costs.

The court heard a separate civil case would look into the issue of compensation for Mr Wain.

No-one at the firm was available for comment when contacted by the Telegraph & Argus.

 

‘Now I just want to get it amputated’

Speaking from his Bradford home last night, Mr Wain said the injury had changed his life – but he was determined to return to his job.

And he said he was eager to have his leg amputated and a prosthetic limb fitted so he could try to fulfil his ambition of getting back to his martial arts hobby.

He said the injury had left him unable to walk, so he could not even leave the house to go shopping for groceries.

He said: “My sister and my mum help me out tremendously. I can’t drive my van any more, I can’t ride my motorbike.

“I’m an outdoor person, I always have been. But I just can’t do it until I get my new leg.

“I’m a martial artist and I will be back at it again – I’ve got to do.”

Mr Wain said he had also missed taking his eight-year-old son out on his bike or sledging in the snow over winter.

He said: “Other people have had to do it for me, which hurts me a bit. But next year it’ll be different.”

But Mr Wain said wanted to return to his job at the factory when he was able to. He said: “I’ve still got my job. As long as I can do it, I will be working. I want to get back to work.

“I get on with everybody there, they’re good people. The gaffers and everybody else are all good people. They come and see me every month. I can’t argue with them.”

Of the £12,000 fine, Mr Wain said: “I’m quite happy about it. I’m just glad they’ve got rid of that machine and nobody else will be injured.”