Finger injury award

A man working as an operative has been awarded £20,000 after his hand was injured by a drilling machine. The man was cleaning and relining sections of water mains when the incident occurred. He was disconnecting and connecting the rods on the drilling machine which was being pushed through the mains to clean it. The machine was defective as the guard on it was too small and it only had one guide. The machine hit an obstruction in the mains pipe with the result the rods snaked, trapping the man’s hand against the machine and severing the middle and index fingers of his left hand.