OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221424534
WEI SALES, LLC. - WELLS ENTERPRISES INC.
LE MARS, IA·
Event description
Employee crushes finger in valve, fingertip is later amputat
Investigation abstract
On December 27, 2021, an employee arrived at work and realized that the pump was stuck in the valve, so he stuck his finger up into the valve to feel if there was anything there. The valve cycled crushing the employee's finger between the valve and the valve wall. The employee was transported to the hospital shortly after and was admitted. The employee's left index fingertip was amputated. not running on a chocolate line. Coworkers had been trying to run the line, but no chocolate going to the dip tank. The employee took apart the pump, cleaned it, and put it back together, before realizing the pump was not the problem. The employee then realized that the valve that controls the flow of chocolate into the dip tank could be malfunctioning. The employee grabbed a ladder to gain access to the valve, which was just under 8 feet above the ground. The employee removed the tubing that was attached to the valve to look up into the valve. The employee saw that the valve was clear but thought there might be something still
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 31 F
- Event type
- 2
- Occupation code
- 7026
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.