OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14300164
KICK BACK,PORTABLE POWER TOOL,WORK RULES,SAW,INEXPERIENCE,LACERATION,UNTRAINED,LEG
Event description
Carpenter's helper cuts leg when portable saw kicks back
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was using a portable saw that had been set for 2 by 4s to cut some 5 n outside of them, and the employee's alignment with the cut line. Employee #1 r eported that the carpenter to whom he had been assigned had carefully instructed him in the proper method of doing many things--except for using a portable saw. At the time of the accident he had been working as a carpenter's helper for app roximately one week. /8 in. plywood that was lying across two sawhorses. He made the cut outside the horses without incident and, leaving the cut depth the same, set about cutting a nother piece of 5/8 in. plywood that was lying on two 4 by 4s on the concrete fl oor. He was kneeling on the floor and had just started making the cut between th e 4 by 4s and himself when the saw kicked back and cut the inside of his right t high. The saw guard was examined the next day and there were no apparent observe d or reported defects. Factors that may have contributed to this accident includ e an incorrect depth adjustment, cutting inside the material supports rather tha
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 27 M
- Nature of injury
- 7
- Part of body
- 16
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 21
- Occupation code
- 599
- Human factor
- 10
- Environmental factor
- 18
- 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.