OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14412027
BEST UNIFORM SUPPLY CO.
HOUSTON, TX·
Event description
EMPLOYEE'S HEAD CAUGHT IN NON-INTERLOCKED WASHING MACHINE
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS PLACING BLEACH-SOAKED "PUMICE" STONES (FOR STONE WASHING BLUEJEA NS) INTO AN "AMERICAN CASCADE" WASHING MACHINE. HIS HEAD AND SHOULDERS WERE INSI DE THE MACHINE WHEN SOMEONE APPARENTLY ACTIVATED THE START BUTTON. THE START BUT TON WAS LOCATED ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE MACHINE. THE START BUTTON ACTIVATED A RO TATING DRUM WITHIN THE WASHER WHICH CAUGHT EMPLOYEE #1'S HEAD, INFLICTING FATAL INJURIES. THE MACHINE WAS NOT PROVIDED WITH A SAFETY INTERLOCK TO ENSURE THAT TH E MACHINE WAS DE-ENERGIZED DURING LOADING AND UNLOADING. FOUR EMPLOYEES WERE IN THE WORK AREA WHEN THE INCIDENT OCCURRED.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 26 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 999
- 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.