UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

At approximately 1:50 a.m. on December 20, 2013, Employee #1, a line operator, of Priority Personnel Services Inc. was working at a filler line owned by Mars Pet Care US, Inc. (Er1), pet dry foods manufacturing facility. A bag filler machine of the production line #4 was in operation to fill packs of 15-lb. dog food bags. The line #4 has flattener section consisted of two inclined (lower & upper) conveyors situated in the quality control cage and carrying filled bags to the warehousing section. During running the line, Employee #1 was assisting a coworker, quality control technician, in retrieving dog food bags for quality control checks (for metal particle detection) from the cage floor area and saw a food bag stuck/ jammed on the lower conveyor. At that time Employee #1 tried to remove the jammed bag from lower conveyor with his left hand and braced his right hand on the moving belt and bottom tension roller of the upper conveyor. The conveyor pulled his right sleeve cuff of his jumpsuit with his arm. Emergency Medical Service was called and the Paramedics transported the employee to the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, for treatment. Surgery was performed and he was hospitalized for three weeks.