Abstract: At approximately 11:40 a.m. on January 25, 2006, Employee #1 was employed at Seagull Sanitation Systems, a company engaged in the business of solid waste collection from commercial and residential properties. It also recycled waste and maintained a landfill. Trash was brought to the processing site by collection trucks and deposited in the Material Recovery Facility (MRF), which was a huge hangar type structure. The contents of the garbage bags were emptied on a floor, then directed towards an upward inclined conveyor and continued onto a conveyor belt located on an elevated work platform. The 5-ft wide conveyor belt ran in the middle of this elevated platform, about waist high, and ran at a speed slow enough to allow employees to locate and retrieve a recyclable item, while standing on the side of the conveyor belt. Employees then dropped recyclable items into openings, where large designated bins caught the items as they reached the ground below. On the day of the accident, Employee #1 was sorting out trash on one side of the elevated conveyor. At one point, he moved his hand across the belt to spread some items out. At that point, something exploded. The local police authority's statement indicated that Employee #1 had picked up a bottle from the belt and pulled a pin from the top and then it exploded. He lost his right thumb, index, and middle fingers. He was hospitalized and treated for the amputation of three fingers.