Abstract: At 12:30 p.m. on May 2, 2002, Employee #1 was working for FCI Corporation Construction Site located at 1750 Monte Vista Avenue in Claremont, California. Employee #1 and coworkers were working on the site of a freeway (210) under construction. Employee #1 was operating a tie bar inserter which is part of the Gomaco Paver Model GP 2600, Serial Number 9053000-003 and is computer programmed to insert tie bars (rebars) every so many feet into concrete. The tie bars were manually inserted in the machine, which Employee #1 was doing when his glove was caught on the reciprocating tie bar inserter. The reciprocating part was unguarded and was not a point of operation. Employee #1 did not know that there was a guard for the tie bar inserter and had operated it for three days without it. Employee #1 hit the emergency stop and attempted to remove the glove. Employee #1's little finger on his left hand was amputated at the knuckle. The employee was taken to a local medical center and later to Loma Linda Medical Center in Loma Linda, California where he was treated for the amputation and released.