The Health and Safety Executive has confirmed it has been in contact with Jaguar Land Rover following a production line accident where a worker was crushed by a car, though as yet no formal investigation has been launched.
The Jaguar worker, who has not been named, was working on a section of the line where F-Type bodies and engines are combined at the Castle Bromwich plant when the car body crushed him.
Co-workers rushed to the injured man’s aid with between 20 and 30 of them helping to lift the car from him.
Jaguar Land Rover immediately launched its own investigation into the incident, which happened on Monday morning.
A HSE spokeswoman told the Post it had been in touch with the car-maker but was awaiting the receipt of further details before any additional steps were taken.
She said: “HSE is aware of the incident and has spoken with the company. We are awaiting further details.”
A colleague of the injured worker said he believes it was only the speedy intervention of co-workers that saved the man’s life.
The colleague, who did not wish to be named, was en eye-witness to the incident and one of those who helped lift the car off the injured man.
Most Read
He said he believed the rapid response was a potential life-saver.
“I am confident that without the help of myself and many of my other colleagues prying the car off of him, this would have ended as a fatality,” he said.
Explaining how the accident took place, he added: “I was looking directly at him when the incident happened.
“The car did not drop, there was a fault with both the car’s carrier and the tug on which the engine and axles sat.
“This caused the carrier to jolt forward independently of the tug, pinning my colleague’s chest and neck between the front axle and the rear of the front wheel arch.
“His chest was crushed to the point of compressive asphyxia, he was unable to scream, and he fell unconscious well within 60 seconds of this.
“He is now stable with multiple broken ribs, a broken collarbone and multiple lacerations and bruises.”
Don’t miss
The accident took place just after 9.40am on when assembly workers had returned to work following their morning break.
One worker at the plant, told the Post it took 20-30 workers to lift the car body from the injured man, who was given first-aid treatment by colleagues before being treated by paramedics and rushed to Heartlands Hospital.
Another worker said: “It was at the point where the engine met the body and this bloke was crushed by the body of the car.
“We had our morning break from 9.20-9.40am and it happened just after that.
“Other workers were really shocked and we had the group leaders coming around telling us to go to the rest areas.”
The incident, which prompted the immediate shut-down of the F-Type production line, happened just days after Jaguar workers returned from their annual summer shut-down last Thursday.
A Jaguar Land Rover spokesman said West Midlands Ambulance Service attended following the incident in a final assembly production area and that the employee involved was transferred to Heartlands Hospital.
He added: “A full investigation is already under way to understand the circumstances surrounding the incident.”
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said a paramedic area support officer and an ambulance crew attended and added: “A man in his thirties had a chest injury and a minor head injury after an incident with some of the plant at the factory.
“When ambulance staff arrived he had already been freed and was being cared for by colleagues.”