OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14198675
MIXER BLADE,AMPUTATED,FINGER,WORK RULES,CLEANING,LACERATION,AUGER
Event description
EMPLOYEE'S FINGER AMPUTATED BY AUGER BLADES OF MIXER
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS CLEANING A MEPACO #170 VEGETABLE MIXING MACHINE, SERIAL #382, WH T. HE SQUATTED DOWN, REACHED UP UNDER THE BARRIER GUARD AND AIMED THE STREAM OF WATER AT THE LIP OF THE 12 INCH DIAMETER DOOR. FROM HIS POSITION, HE HAD TO PLAC E HIS HAND VERY CLOSE TO THE DOOR OPENING TO BE ABLE TO EFFECTIVELY STRIKE THE R ICE BUILD UP WITH THE STREAM OF WATER. HE CAME TOO CLOSE TO THE AUGER BLADE AND WAS STRUCK BY IT. THE BLADE SEVERED HIS RIGHT INDEX FINGER AND LACERATED HIS RIG HT THUMB. THERE WERE NO WRITTEN WORK RULES REGARDING THE SAFE PROCEDURE FOR CLEA NING THIS EQUIPMENT. EN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED. THE VEGETABLE MIXER IS EQUIPPED WITH TWIN AUGER BLADES . IT IS CLEANED ON A DAILY BASIS BY MEMBERS OF THE THIRD SHIFT. A STREAM OF WATE R UNDER HIGH PRESSURE IS USED TO CLEAN THE MIXER. HE HAD STARTED THE AUGERS SO T HEY WOULD SWEEP WATER AND VEGETABLES OUT THE DISCHARGE DOORS AND ONTO THE FLOOR. HE NOTICED A BUILD UP OF RICE ON THE LIP OF THE LEFT DISCHARGE DOOR. HE AIMED A STREAM OF WATER DIRECTLY AT THE BUILD UP. HOWEVER, THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT WATER PRESSURE TO REMOVE THE RICE FROM HIS POSITION AT THE REAR OF THE MIXER. WITH TH E AUGER BLADES RUNNING, THE EMPLOYEE WALKED TO THE DISCHARGE END OF THE EQUIPMEN
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 28 M
- Nature of injury
- 1
- Part of body
- 10
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 863
- Human factor
- 18
- Environmental factor
- 3
- Task assigned
- 1
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.