UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

At 1:30 p.m. on January 4, 2022, Employee #1 was operating an employer-fabricate d machine to drill holes in pieces of I-beams. The machine was referred to as th e Auto Drilling machine. It had two motors, which transferred power to two drill bits for each motor. The overall width of the machine was 13 feet and 6 inches, and the working width was 10 feet and 11 inches. The depth was 2 feet and 4 inc hes, and the distance from the front edge to the point of operation was approxim ately 18 inches. The height from the floor to the rollers was 38.5 inches. The d rill bits each were 7/8 of an inch. After placing a section of I-beam in the mac hine, employees pushed a button to start the drills moving downward. The bits au tomatically raised after the holes were drilled, but there was another button to raise the bits, if necessary. While the machine was running and the bits were s till rotating, employees were instructed to remove the I-beam, turn it over and rotate it, and then reinsert it into the machine to repeat the process on the ot her side of the beam. The machine did not have guarding around the point of oper ation. Employee #1 reached into the machine to move the I-beam while the machine was running. His glove became caught in the rotating bits of the machine, and h is right hand and arm were pulled into the machine. A coworker saw what happened and hit all the stop buttons on the machine. Employee #1 sustained fractures to his right hand and wrist and was hospitalized.