OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221417066

WELLS ENTERPRISES, INC.

LE MARS, IA· 2021-12-04T00:00:00

Event: Amputated, Amputation, Butterfly Valve, Catch Point, Caught In, Cleaning, Engineering Controls, Finger, Fingertip, Food processing, Guard, Inspecting, Insufficient Supervision, Lack of Engineering Controls, Lack of Work Procedures, Machine Guarding, Machine operator, Material Handling, Misjudgment, Misjudgment of Hazardous Situation, Partial Amputation, Pinched, Sheared, Supervision, Troubleshooting, Unguarded, Valve
NAICS: 311520
Inspection type: Referral
Activity number: #345673453
Employer profile: WELLS ENTERPRISES, INC.
Summary number: 221417066
Report ID: 0751910

Event description

Employee amputates fingertip in valve when machine activates

Investigation abstract

At 10:20 a.m. on December 4, 2021, an employee was working alone at a food manufacturing facility when he noticed sugar on the floor. The employee retrieved a ladder in order to inspect a butterfly valve located approximately 100" from ground level. The employee was attempting to clean the valve when the equipment started automatically and closed the valve on his right index finger. The employee amputated his fingertip and required medical treatment without hospitalization.

Victim

#1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 46 M

Event type
2

Occupation code
699

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.