A worker repairing a pavement in Edinburgh had to endure a long agonising ordeal as fire-fighters, using an angle grinder, rushed to free his arm from a cement mixer.
It is thought the Land Engineering worker had placed his hand inside the cement mixer to clear some grout, when his left arm became entrapped in the mechanism, turning his arm in excess of a 360 degree angle.
The 28 year old, whose brother also worked on the site, remained awake and in extreme pain. The incident was so distressing that a cordon was set up around the victim, in order to prevent passers-by from viewing just how badly the 28 year old had been injured.
Officials from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are investigating the incident and the Council are setting up their own enquiry.
Tom McGrath, of Tollcross Fire Station, who led the operation, said:
"We got a call saying that a male had his hand trapped in a concrete mixer.
"When we arrived we found the man had his arm trapped between the wrist and elbow inside the mixer mechanism.
"He's either caught his jacket or his arm in it, and he was very seriously injured. I can't comment on whether or not he will lose his arm, but it was very serious.
"We had to keep passers-by away because of the nature of the incident."It was getting to the stage where if he wasn't extricated fairly rapidly, we would have had to call it in as a 'medic one'.
"That's when flying ambulance with doctors on board is sent to deal with a prolonged incident."
Stuart Dillett, Director of the Hamilton-based Land Engineering company, said:
"Land Engineering have this morning been made aware of an unfortunate accident involving one of our sub-contractor operatives.
"While it is yet too early to comment on the factors contributing to the incident a formal internal accident investigation has been initiated by our in-house health and safety section in line with Land Engineering's established procedures.
"Where necessary, action will be taken as appropriate to reflect the findings of the investigation."
The HSE provide lots of information for the safety of construction workers within their webpages, one of which can be accessed by clicking the following:
Construction - Good order initiative
Article by Alexandra Johnston
