UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

At 7:00 p.m. on January 17, 2022, an employee was loading liquid dairy product i nto a 6200 gallon bulk tanker trailer in the truck loading bay. When tankers are being loaded, dairy product is pumped through sanitary lines connected between a bulk silo and into the rear inlet valve of the tanker trailer. The loading pro cess involves two sequences, product loadout and line rinse. After the loadout c ycle was complete, the employee initiated the line rinse cycle from an HMI compu ter control panel located in a separate area. After walking back into the truck bay, the employee noticed product overflowing from the tanker's top hatch and im mediately went to the rear of the tanker to close the three-inch 60 TTF sanitary tanker valve. The valve was equipped with an external plunger-type stem designe d to be manually pushed closed. To prevent the tanker valve from inadvertently c losing during loading operations, a piece of reinforced rubber hose was placed a round the valve stem to prevent the valve from working itself closed during load out operations. The employee removed the rubber hose from the valve stem, place d the palm of his right hand on the valve handle and began to push the valve ste m inward when the valve actuated and abruptly snapped closed, severing the emplo yees right middle finger tip between the valve stem handle and valve housing. T he employee suffered a right middle fingertip amputation above third knuckle and was treated without hospitalization.