Machine Operator Crushed in Conveyor Belt in California

Details

• Personal Author:
  Fowler, John ; Harrison, Robert
• Corporate Authors:
  California Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (CA/FACE) ; California. Department of Health Services
• Description:
  A 22-year-old Hispanic male machine operator (victim) died after being pulled into a conveyor belt and crushed. The victim climbed down into a pit next to a conveyor belt in order to clean the area or remove a piece of wood. Although this was not a routine part of his job, the victim would enter the pit occasionally to clean the area or remove a piece of wood which was lodged in the conveyor belt. There were no co-workers in the area when the incident occurred, and the victim was not discovered until approximately an hour after the incident occurred. The California FACE investigator concluded that, in order to prevent similar occurrences in the future, employers should: 1. provide and implement a written and documented safety training plan for operating the conveyor belt, and a plan for a safe means of access should employees need to retrieve a piece of wood or other debris from the machine. 2. provide guards on the conveyor belt at locations where employees may be at risk of getting caught and pulled into the machine 3. have lockout procedures implemented in the areas where the conveyor belt and grinder power switches are located. There should also be a control switch located in the pit next to the conveyor belt for emergency purposes.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention Machine-guarding OSHA Region 9 Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Sawmill-workers Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Hispanic ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Manufacturing ; Foreign Born Workers ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE92CA004
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  4 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026962
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2008-100188
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 92CA004, 1992 Oct ; :1-4
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1993
• Performing Organization:
  California Department of Health Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1991/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:85346e3a7eb549bdc5cd6fd4df3ab18754c9c95c0b3224775f224ba881afc62d0c21e8e94c362b88153bd64ceeba9502ecc9073c701a393cc9cd4602bcb2f4b8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169068/cdc_169068_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 17.92 KB ]