OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #673244
FARMERS COOPERATIVE ELEVATOR OF OTTOSEN
OTTOSEN, IA·
Event description
FINGER CAUGHT IN CHAIN AND SPROCKET
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS CHECKING THE DRY CORN CONVEYOR TO DETERMINE WHY IT HAD STOPPED. HE APPARENTLY LOOKED INTO THE TUNNEL, WEST OF THE LOCATION OF THE ACCIDENT. HIS HAND EVIDENTLY MADE CONTACT WITH THE CONVEYOR CHAIN. THE PRESSURE ON THE CHAIN T IGHTENED IT UP AND TOOK HIS FINGERS AROUND THE SPROCKET. HIS INDEX FINGER, ALMOS T COMPLETELY AMPUTATED, STILL HAD AN ARTERY INTACT, SO A DR. REATTACHED IT. A PA RTIAL GUARD WAS IN PLACE OVER THE CHAIN, BUT THERE WAS AN EXPOSED AREA, 2 3/4 IN CHES WIDE AND 29 INCHES LONG THAT WAS NOT COVERED. THE TOP END OF THE CHAIN WAS 44 INCHES ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. THE CHAIN AND SPROCKETS WERE LESS THAN 7 FEET ABOV E GROUND LEVEL, BUT WERE NOT TOTALLY ENCLOSED.
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 56 M
- Nature of injury
- 1
- Part of body
- 10
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 863
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 1
- 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.