Home / Disasters and Accidents / Packaging firm fined again after hand injury
Packaging firm fined again after hand injury
13 Aug
Summary
- Worker's hand crushed cleaning a machine.
- Company fined £60,000 for recent safety breach.
- Previous fine was £277,500 after a worker died.
A plastic packaging manufacturer has incurred a second significant fine within a year following a severe crush injury to an employee's hand. Reflex Flexible Packaging Limited was ordered to pay £60,000 on Monday after a worker suffered a crush injury while cleaning a laminator machine.
The incident occurred on January 17, 2025, at the company's Halesfield, Telford site. A laminator operative and shift supervisor became injured when a cleaning rag was caught between in-running rollers, pulling their left hand into the machine up to the wrist.
Colleagues immediately activated the emergency stop, preventing further injury. The worker required hospitalization for four nights, undergoing two operations and subsequent physiotherapy for their hand. This latest penalty follows a substantial £277,500 fine in November 2025 after a separate fatality at the company's Langley Mill, Derbyshire site, where an employee died trapped in an unguarded machine.
