Worker wins £40,000 in damages for severe hand injury

Posted: September 27, 2014

Posted in: Finger Injuries Hand Injuries Workplace Injuries 

A Tyneside shipbuilder has been awarded £40,000 in damages after faulty equipment caused him to suffer a severe hand injury. 30-year-old Robert Gibbons, from Howden, had been working on a new project with boatmaking firm Alnmaritec Ltd when the accident happened. Mr Gibbons was unable to work for months following the workplace accident in September 2010.

Mr Gibbons had been operating a Flat Bar Pyramid Rolls machine, a machine used to roll aluminum sheeting into shape. With the machine set to stop when the foot pedal is released, Mr Gibbons did not expect it to continue running when he reached into the machine to straighten the sheeting. A fault in the machine had meant that the foot pedal had stopped working, pulling Mr Gibbons’s hand into the machine and leaving him with a severe deformity.

20% loss of hand function

Mr Gibbons was taken directly to hospital with fractures to his index finger and little finger. Doctors were unable to save the full function of his hand, however, leaving him with a finger bent at 90 degrees and a 20% loss of hand function in his dominant hand.

Mr Gibbons has finally accepted Alnmaritec’s compensation offer of £40,000. He still suffers the side effects of the accident today, he said: “I feel the pain in the cold really bad. I was working a night shift in the winter, it was icy cold and the pain in my finger was just terrible.”

If you have suffered an injury at work, and are looking to claim compensation, please contact us. 

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