UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Abstract: Between 12:00 noon and 1:30 p.m. on May 21, 1986, Employee #1 was sending plastic hardware products in cardboard containers from the first level storeroom up an inclined, fabric-belted, mechanically driven conveyor through a wall opening to the second level storeroom. The process, as explained by the store manager, is as follows: Employee #1, the operator, loaded the conveyor and then walked up a central staircase to the conveyor on the second level, where it runs horizontally into the storeroom unloading area. The conveyor controls were installed there, just inside the wall opening, and readily accessible for an emergency stop. The store manager believes that Employee #1 must have stretched the upper part of his body through the wall opening as a cardboard container was ascending. As Employee #1 pulled out, he could have struck the back of his head against the top exterior portion of the wall opening, and fallen unconscious. The approximately 15 lb container, which measured 23 in. high by 20 in. wide by 17 in. long, continued to rise and struck Employee #1, lodging against his throat. He died of asphyxia. There were no witnesses to the accident.