OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #963538
GLOVE,WORK RULES,CAUGHT BY,ROLLER CONVEYOR,LACERATION,CONVEYOR,SPROCKET,ARM
Event description
EMPLOYEE INJURED WHEN CAUGHT IN SPROCKET
Investigation abstract
On December 27, 1989, Employee #1 was transferring frozen food cartons from a pa arton. At the beginning of the third shift, a carton fell part way. Employee #1, who knew nothing of the sprocket wheel on the end of the roller, attempted to r etrieve the carton without shutting down the conveyor. The employee wore cloth g loves and was working in an awkward position. The sprocket caught his glove and, in seconds, began wrapping and tearing it. The glove was quickly cut through an d the inside of Employee #1's right forearm was deeply lacerated. The line was s topped. Emergency Medical Team personnel, who are on each shift, quickly attende d him. Employee #1 was taken to a local hospital. A collar replaced the sprocket and the first roller was reinstalled. Employee #1 had worked in the frozen food warehouse (distribution) for the supermarket chain for 6 years. The warehouse i llet to a conveyor that feeds a lane loader. The end of the conveyor (which empl s highly automated and computer-controlled. However, some equipment is manual, i ncluding a depalletizer. During this 6-year period, Employee #1 had performed wo rk on this unit off and on for periods of a month of more. oys bar rollers) includes an emergency switch used to shut down the conveyor sec tion, when necessary. There was a 10-in. space between the bar and the control p anel. The first roller was missing and on its place, the space was reduced to 6 inches. Some cartons fell off the side of the conveyor or fell through this gap to the level below, a distance of 6 feet. There was also a 2.5-ft. die sprocket (no chain) on the end of the roller, located 30 inches from the user's side of t he conveyor. There was also a crossbar about 2 feet below the end of a falling c
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 32 M
- Nature of injury
- 7
- Part of body
- 2
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 27
- Occupation code
- 877
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 8
- 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.