OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14196349
AMPUTATED,FINGER,WORK RULES,THUMB,LACERATION,UNTRAINED,TABLE SAW
Event description
EMPLOYEE SEVERED INDEX FINGER AND CUT THUMB ON SAW
Investigation abstract
AT ABOUT 6 AM ON SEPTEMBER 10, 1986, EMPLOYEE #1, WHO WAS EMPLOYED AS A GROUNDSK . HIS LEFT INDEX FINGER WAS NEARLY SEVERED AND LEFT THUMB CUT. HE TURNED OFF THE SAW AND WALKED INTO THE NEXT BUILDING TO INFORM MANAGEMENT. MEDICAL TREATMENT W AS GIVEN AND AN AMBULANCE CALLED. HE WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL, WHERE HIS FINGER WAS AMPUTATED AND HIS THUMB STITCHTED. EEPER, REPORTED FOR DUTY. HE ASKED A SUPERVISOR FOR PERMISSION TO GLUE TWO PIECE S OF SCRAP LUMBER TOGETHER (FOR PERSONAL USE AT HOME). HE ENTERED BUILDING #2 AN D BEGAN USING A TABLE SAW (NORTHFIELD FOUNDRY AND MACHINE COMPANY, NORTHFIELD, M INN., SER #74454-68, SIZE #4) TO SMOOTH THE BOARDS BEFORE GLUING THEM. THE SAW W AS EQUIPPED WITH GUARDS. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THIS TABLE SAW IS NOT USED FOR RIPPING. HOWEVER, EMPLOYEE #1 CHOSE TO USE THIS SAW FOR RIPPING. HE PUSHED T HE LUMBER INTO THE SAW WITH HIS RIGHT HAND. AFTER CUTTING THE SECOND BOARD, HE M UST HAVE REACHED INTO THE SAW BLADE WITH HIS LEFT HAND TO PUSH AWAY THE OFF-FALL
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 78 M
- Nature of injury
- 7
- Part of body
- 10
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 453
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 18
- Task assigned
- 2
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.