Abstract: At approximately 9:15 a.m. on February 2, 1998, Employee #1, a mill supervisor with six years experience with Craftsman Millworks, Inc., was told by a coworker that the 19 in. Mereen Johnson gang rip saw, model 419-D/O, serial #MJ1878, had became jammed as he was feeding in 2 in. by 2 in. by 7 in. wood stock. Employee #1 went to the saw, shut it down completely, raised the blades, and cleared out the jammed pieces. He then asked the coworker to turn on the machine and feed a piece of wood through it. Seeing that the saw was still not working properly, Employee #1 and the coworker went to the left side of the rip saw, opened it, and saw a piece of wood lying on the eighth blade of the arbor, adjacent to the start of the conveyor belt. Employee #1 turned off power to the conveyor and used a 3 1/2 ft long by 1/2 in. diameter steel rod to dislodge the piece from the saw. In the process, the rod struck the spinning blades and kicked back, striking him above his right ea and knocking him unconsciousness. He was transported to Long Beach (CA) Memorial Hospital for treatment. Employee #1 had apparently not deenergized the saw completely.