A man who had his feet crushed in a rolling mill has spoken of his shock at the lack of safety measures his employer had in place.

A magistrates' court heard how the 62-year-old worker was carrying out maintenance for a steel firm in August 2009 when he began work to clean rollers used to reduce the thickness of slabs of steel.

This involved the man standing on the outgoing side of the mill with his feet in between several hot conveyor rollers in order to attach a hydraulic ram to aid the removal of the rollers.

But on this occasion a colleague in the control room did not know the man was standing on the rollers and activated hydraulic side arms used to position steel plates through the mill rollers. One of the sidearms moved inwards crushing his right foot and part of his left foot against the conveyor rollers.

He had his right leg below the knee amputated and it is unlikely he will ever work again.

After a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive, the firm was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £9,757.99 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety legislation.

Following the incident the employee said "every aspect" of his life had changed.

"It's shocking there weren't more safety measures in place," he said.

Last month, another steel firm was fined £20,000 after a worker sustained serious crush injuries while fixing a packing machine.

Article courtesy of Aviva PLC. Published 15/04/11