OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14478267
PENOBSCOT FROZEN FOODS, INC.
BELFAST, ME·
Event description
Employee severs four fingers in potato skin splitter
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was working at the tail end of a job-made potato skin splitter, a ma chine similar to a circular gang saw. For some reason, probably an attempt to cl ear a build-up 0f potato cuttings, Employee #1 reached under the table into the area of the rotating saws. She severed four fingers on her right hand when it co ntacted the circular saw blades. This machine was one of five potato skin splitt ers and the guarding of its circular blades was not as effective as the other fo ur. Employees interviewed stated they were not to clean or adjust the machines u nless the machines had been shut down and unplugged.
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 55 F
- Nature of injury
- 1
- Part of body
- 10
- Event type
- 6
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 17
- 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.