Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025
105,991Records 71,450Employers 85,836Hospitalizations 27,959Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-11-30

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221447402

SMITHFIELD FOODS INC

Event
Amputated, Amputation, Blade, Finger, Hand, Laceration, Pinched, Rotating Parts
NAICS
424490
Inspection type
Accident-driven
Activity number
#345592315
Employer profile
SMITHFIELD FOODS INC
Summary number
221447402
Report ID
0950635

Event description

Employee lacerates middle finger tip on left hand

Investigation abstract

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on October 5, 2021, an employee, a mechanic, was then used his left hand to reach inside the Blood Dryer Venturi-Jet Dust Airlock, which was still on, fully functional, and running. Inside this Blood Dryer Venturi-Jet Dust Airlock was rotating blades designed to move the animal blood through the bottom of the Blood Silo. As the employee inserted his left hand into the Blood Dryer Venturi-Jet Dust Airlock, one of the rotating blades inside cut the tip of the employee's middle finger on his left hand. The employee immediately felt a pinch and reacted by pulling his left hand away. The employee was treated without hospitalization. working on the bottom section of equipment called the Blood Dryer Venturi-Jet Dust Airlock-an inlet pipe. The employee removed a pipe clamp, connecting and securing the inlet pipe to the Blood Dryer Venturi-Jet Dust Airlock. The employee proceeded to unscrew and remove four bolts of the pipe clamp. After removing the pipe clamp, the employee could disconnect the inlet pipe from the Blood Dryer Venturi-Jet Dust Airlock. The employee moved the inlet pipe to the side, allowing direct access into the inside section of the Blood Dryer Venturi-Jet Dust Airlock. The employee used his flashlight to look inside and

Victim

  1. #1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 48 M

    Event type
    1
    Occupation code
    547

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.