Abstract: At approximately 8:45 p.m. on the second shift on June 24, 1992, Employee #1, a USDA poultry inspector, was checking the chilling procedure on the #1 pre-chiller and found that the water level was at 8 in. when it should have been 12 in. He immediately returned to the USDA office and called the second shift supervisor to tell him that the chillers were out of compliance. When the supervisor arrived, he and Employee #1 walked over to pre-chiller #1, whereupon Employee #1 showed the supervisor that the water level was low. The supervisor then asked Employee #1 if pre-chiller #2 was OK. Employee #1 told him he had not checked it yet. Employee #1 and the supervisor went over to the machine to check it. The water level was at 14 in. instead of 12 in. The supervisor tried to adjust the water level, but didn't know how to do it so he called over the second shift chiller operator. When they returned to pre-chiller #2, Employee #1 climbed onto a catwalk to check the water level. (It is not possible to check the water level from the floor because the overflow box is 64 3/4 in. from the floor.) The supervisor and the chiller operator then went back to see if they could adjust pre-chiller #1. Employee #1 decided to get off the catwalk and was backing out in a bent over position to get under the eviscerating line that comes across the chiller at a right angle. At this time a bird that hadn't dropped glanced off the back of his head. Employee #1 leaned forward by reflex to let the bird pass, and his hand went into the windmill just as a paddle was coming by. His hand was caught between the paddle and the case of the windmill. He yelled to the supervisor and chiller operator to shut off the chiller. The paddle continued to draw in his arm and severed it at the elbow.