A company in Rotherham has been fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs following an accident at work in which a worker suffered serious injuries after being crushed by a 1.5-tonne weight.

Yorkshire Spin Galvanising Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching safety regulations in relation to the incident in September 2010, which happened when the worker was investigating a fault with a zinc galvanising machine at the company’s Rotherham site.

After clearing the fault he went to the rear of the gantry inside the machine to check another repair. However, as he leaned over to view the issue, the counterweight descended and pinned him against a junction box.

According to the Health and Safety Executive they stated that systems should have been in place to isolate the machinery from the power supply. The victim suffered a broken shoulder, cracked ribs and snapped vertebrae in the incident.

Sally Rissbrook, a workplace injury specialist and solicitor at Irwin Mitchell’s Sheffield office , acts for victims hurt in industrial accidents, as well as the families of those killed in such incidents.

Commenting on this case, she said: “We see so many cases in which workers have been seriously hurt in incidents which could and should have been avoided.

“Incidents like this one in South Yorkshire demonstrate why health and safety needs to be viewed as a fundamental priority by all employers, as the consequences of failings can be incredibly serious.

“We hope that manufacturers and other companies take heed of the issues raised by this case and ensure that no other workers face the same problems in the future.”