OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14478044
CLEANING,LOCKOUT,CRUSHED,SKULL
Event description
SKULL CRUSHED BY BLENDER
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS CLEANING A BLENDER USED TO MIX DRY POWDERS WITH OIL TO BE USED I FAILED TO WORK WHEN TESTED. THE START/STOP SWITCH WAS EQUIPPED WITH A STOP BUTT ON HOLD-DOWN. THE BLENDER COULD STILL BE OPERATED IN A "JOG" MODE WITH THE STOP BUTTON DEPRESSED. THE BLENDER FUNCTION SWITCH, WHICH WOULD HAVE PREVENTED THE BL ENDER FROM TURNING WHEN IT WAS IN THE NEUTRAL POSITON, WAS FOUND IN THE REVERSE SETTING. IT APPEARS THAT WHILE BENT OVER INTO THE BLENDER, EMPLOYEE #1 ACCIDENTL Y ACTIVATED IT, CRUSHING HIS SKULL. N A PLASTICS EXTRUSION PROCESS. ANOTHER EMPLOYEE IN THE ROOM WAS CLEANING THE EX TRUDER. NOISE LEVELS IN THE ROOM WERE LIMITED TO THE SOUNDS OF COMPRESSED AIR BE ING RELEASED. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS OBSERVED CLEANING THE BLENDER AT ABOUT 5:45 PM BY THE ASSISTANT FOREMAN. NO OTHER EMPLOYEE HAD A CLEAR VIEW OF EMPLOYEE #1. NO ONE HEARD ANY SOUNDS OF DISTRESS FROM HIM. HE WAS DISCOVERED, DEAD, IN THE BLENDER AT ABOUT 6 PM. THERE WAS NO LOCK-OUT PROGRAM IN EFFECT AT THE WORKPLACE. THERE W ERE SOME SAFETY FEATURES IN THE BLENDER SYSTEM WHICH DID NOT FUNCTION PROPERLY. A MICRO SWITCH WHICH WAS DESIGNED TO DETECT THE ABSENCE OF COVERS ON THE BLENDER
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 35 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 13
- Environmental factor
- 4
- 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.