Last updated on November 30th, 2021 at 11:47 am

The man, Mr S, was employed as a fitter/welder/plater at Cleehill Plant, where he had worked since 2005 fitting and fabricating on various pieces of machinery. Mr S had always been employed in the fabrication industry and had lots of experience.

Drill accident caused as it had no handle or clutch

On the day of the accident, Mr S was instructed to drill holes in the chassis of a lorry in order to fix decking boards: a taks he had carried out previously on other lorries. The drill he was using didn’t have an auxiliary handle on it – which it should have, and one was not available, so he used it as it was. As he was in the process of carrying out the job, on both knees to steady the drill, the drill grabbed onto the steel, causing it to swing violently, injuring Mr S’ hand and finger.  Immediately, the pain was so bad that Mr S thought he had broken his hand and reported the accident.  However, he later found that it had never been put in the accident book. Mr S had never received any training on using the drill and no method statement was available.

14 weeks off work following drill accident

Despite the pain, Mr S went back to his job, but could not use his right hand.  No first aider was available on the day.  He went home at the end of his shift a couple of hours later and went to work the next day, but he was in so much pain, a colleague took him to hospital, where he was diagnosed with a fractured right ring finger and soft tissue damage.   A support split was applied and he went back to work.  However, Mr S had to go home and in the end had to take 14 weeks off work, much to the distaste of his bosses.  He returned to work on full duties but didn’t feel that he had full grip or full use of his right hand.

During his time off work, Mr S had several sessions of physiotherapy and struggled with most daily tasks.

Mr S contacted Graysons to see if he was entitled to receive compensation as he felt the accident was due to the fact that the drill was not fitted with a clutch or side handle.  Indeed he was aware that after his accident, his employer had changed the drills they supplied to workers.

Employer denied liability

Our personal injury experts took up his case and contacted Cleehill Plant claiming negligence and breach of statutory duty, but the company denied liability and so we issued court proceedings.  However, before the case got to court the company decided to settle, and we were able to negotiate a settlement of £8,000.

If you have had an accident at work and you think that it was not your fault, please contact our experts now to arrange a free of charge meeting in which we can discuss your case.  You can also find out more about accidents at work on our web pages.