Factory Worker Caught in Overhead Conveyor While Hanging Transformers

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Kentucky Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (KY FACE) ; University of Kentucky. College of Public Health. Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center
• Description:
  A 29-year-old male factory worker (the victim) died after his head became caught at the point where an overhead chain conveyor made contact with an idler, or pinwheel, that allowed the conveyor to make a 90-degree turn. The conveyor was over seven feet above the floor, but the victim, who was 6'7" tall, was standing on a platform that enabled him to reach the hooks on the conveyor to hang transformer canisters for delivery to a paint booth. No one saw the victim get caught at the nip point, but his supervisor heard him call out and immediately pushed the emergency stop button. Because there was no way to reverse the conveyor, a welder was brought from another area of the plant to cut it in order to extricate the victim. In the meantime, emergency medical services (EMS) had been called
  
  they arrived in less than two minutes. The victim was transported to a local hospital, and later transferred to a regional trauma center, where he was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m. In order to prevent similar incidents, the KY FACE investigator recommends that: 1. employers should ensure that platforms allowing workers to reach overhead conveyors (i.e., work zones) are a safe distance away from ingoing nip points
  
  2. guarding should be placed around ingoing nip points
  
  3. trainers should never leave new employees unobserved in hazardous areas
  
  4. employers should develop, implement and enforce comprehensive written safety programs
  
  and, 5. all workers should be trained to recognize and avoid hazards in the workplace.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Factory-workers Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 4 Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Traumatic-injuries

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Manufacturing ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE98KY031
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Kentucky ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  5 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026383
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2011-100087
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 98KY031, 1999 Jan ; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1999
• Performing Organization:
  Kentucky Department of Health Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1993/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2bb622e63e8f4cc7cebfd45ad55e83679d5818a97d0c4bcbb237e6ceb79bebfbedd1013246e8ab0b95d569e775a63f3559b3fb806f99cc30d61448a608398496
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/170179/cdc_170179_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 81.41 KB ]