UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

At 4:30 p.m. on January 13, 2022, an employee was loading a trailer using an ext endable conveyor belt (FKI Logistex B822 Shipping Extendible with Hinged Infeed Belt Conveyor A675) at Door 48 in a distribution center. The employee was alone loading a trailer, when a safety pop out roller between the conveyor belts poppe d out again, backing up the load and shutting off the conveyor belt. Rather than wait an estimated hour for maintenance to arrive and fix it, he turned the swit ch off and pushed the roller back in as he had done many times before, the last being a half hour prior. This problem had been reported to maintenance in the pa st. But this time, as soon as the roller was inserted, the conveyor belt started moving, catching the employee's left hand between the belt and the roller. The employee was unable to pull his hand out, and he called for help for over 7 minu tes before someone heard him and came to help. The conveyor was turned off but t he employee could not remove his hand, so maintenance was called, and the rolle r removed, and the employee's left hand freed. The employee was assessed, 911 ca lled, and the employee was taken to UCD Medical Center for treatment, observatio n, and release from the Emergency Department the next morning. The employee suf fered a hand abrasion. When he returned to work two weeks later for light duty, he noticed all of the rollers at all of the doors were replaced with new roller s. Retraining of the warehouse workers was also done. The employer was cited for not timely correcting an unsafe condition.