OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #673897
VERMEER MANUFACTURING COMPANY
PELLA, IA·
Event description
EMPLOYEE'S FINGER AMPUTATED IN HYDRAULIC CYLINDER LEVER
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS TRYING TO ADD TWO BUSHINGS, WHICH BEEN REMOVED DURING ASSEMBLY, WAS STILL IN THE LEVER. NO LOCKOUT SYSTEM WAS USED. TO THE OPERATING LEVER OF A FARM RAKE. HE HAD ALREADY DONE THIS OPERATION TO 4 O THER RAKES WHICH HAD BEEN TAKEN OUT OF LINE. THE RAKE HE WAS WORKING ON WAS CONN ECTED TO A PORTABLE HYDRAULIC PUMP SYSTEM SO THAT IT COULD BE OPERATED FOR TESTI NG. THE EMPLOYEE TOOK A PIN OUT OF THE CONNECTING LEVER AND PUT HIS FINGER THROU GH THE HOLE TO LINE UP THE BUSHINGS. AS HE WAS TRYING TO PUSH THE PIN BACK INTO THE LEVER, ANOTHER EMPLOYEE, LOCATED AT THE OTHER END OF THE RAKE, ACTIVATED THE LEVER ON THE HYDRAULIC PUMP, TO TEST THE RAKE. THIS PUT PRESSURE ON THE HYDRAUL IC CYLINDER AT THE BACK END OF THE RAKE AND SEVERED THE EMPLOYEE'S FINGER, WHICH
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 25 M
- Nature of injury
- 1
- Part of body
- 10
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 785
- Human factor
- 18
- Environmental factor
- 1
- Task assigned
- 2
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.