Abstract: At 3:53 a.m. on January 22, 2000, a serious injury occurred at the Atlantic Garment Dye Laundry in El Monte, California. Employee #1 and a coworker, who witnessed the accident, were loading clothes into Washing Machine Number One, a 900-pound-capacity washer used to dye clothes. The clothes drum had two loading ports. Each port was equipped with an inner and an outer access door and an interlock. The purpose of this interlock was to prevent the cylinder from rotating when the access covers were open. Obviously this interlock was not functioning at the time of the accident. The coworker, the machine operator, finished loading clothes in his port, and closed the inner and outer access doors. Employee #1, the helper, had just finished loading the clothes in his port. Employee #1 released the latch that holds the inner access door open and was in the process of closing the inner access door when the coworker started the washer. The cylinder rotated, causing the inner access door to hit Employee #1 in the mouth. Employee #1 had his upper three teeth knocked out. Employee #1 was transported to USC Medical Center where he was released a few hours later.