OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221418700

WEST & BARKER, INC

NILES, OH· 2021-12-07T00:00:00

Event: Amputated, Amputation, Blade, Defect, Defective, Defective Equipment, Extrude, Extrusion, Extrusion Machine, Finger, Hand, Interlock, Jammed, Knuckle, Lockout, Lockout/Tagout, Machine Cycled, Machine operator, Partial Amputation, Plastic, Plastic Mfg, Sheared, Struck By, Thumb
NAICS: 326199
Inspection type: Referral
Activity number: #345683072
Employer profile: WEST & BARKER, INC
Summary number: 221418700
Report ID: 0522300

Event description

Employee amputates thumb while unjamming running extrusion m

Investigation abstract

At 6:03 p.m. on December 7, 2021, an employee who had been tasked with the setup of an extrusion line was feeding material through each component. This included the exit portion cut off section where the material was jamming and not seating correctly. The employee reached into the blade area to clear the jam at which time the blade cycled. The employee amputated his right thumb to the first knuckle and required medical treatment without hospitalization. At the time of the accident, the machine had not been locked out and the interlocking mechanism incorporated into the blade cover was inoperable.

Victim

#1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 25 M

Event type
1

Occupation code
779

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.