105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14198816

CHAIN,AMPUTATED,FINGER,WORK RULES,CONVEYOR,SPROCKET,CONVEYOR BELT,UNGUARDED

Event
CHAIN,AMPUTATED,FINGER,WORK RULES,CONVEYOR,SPROCKET,CONVEYOR BELT,UNGUARDED
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14198816
Report ID
352410

Event description

EMPLOYEE'S MIDDLE FINGER AMPUTATED IN CHAIN AND SPROCKET

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 OPERATES A HEAT SEALING MACHINE CONNECTED TO A CONVEYOR WHICH CARRIE S DINNERS IN MOLDS. OCCASIONALLY A MOLD WILL NOT CONTAIN A DINNER, CAUSING THE W RAPPING PAPER TO BE APPLIED DIRECTLY TO THE MOLD. THE WRAPPING PAPER MUST BE REM OVED FROM THE MOLD BY HAND OR THE NEXT DINNER TO BE PLACED IN THE MOLD WILL NOT SEAT PROPERLY. EMPLOYEE #1 REACHED THROUGH AN INSPECTION OPENING, AS HE HAD BEEN TRAINED, TO REMOVE A STUCK WRAPPER. HE EXERTED TOO MUCH DOWNWARD PRESSURE, CAUS ING HIS LEFT HAND TO CONTACT AN UNGUARDED MOVING CHAIN AND SPROCKET. A PORTION O F HIS LEFT MIDDLE FINGER WAS AMPUTATED. THE COMPANY WORK RULE FOR THE REMOVAL OF STUCK WRAPPERS WAS NOT ENFORCED.

Victim

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 40 M

    Nature of injury
    1
    Part of body
    10
    Event type
    2
    Source
    26
    Occupation code
    444
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    1
    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.