Inspection Detail

Inspection: 119722296 - The Pacific Lumber Co

Inspection Information - Office: Redding District Office

Investigation Summary

The employer operates a remanufacturing at which a floor level roll conveyor transfers units of lumber to a hoist that raises the units for feeding into the D-5 molder. A fairly heavily used walkway crosses this roll conveyor; access to the walkway is controlled by the molder feeder. The molder feeder, who has other, concurrent, duties, looks out for people when he starts the roll conveyor; it is then the walkway user's responsibility to make sure that the way is clear when the conveyor is running. Just before the start of work at 6:00 a.m., Employee #1 was at the molder feeder station talking to the operator. As Employee #1 was leaving for his work station and passing through the conveyor, he thought he saw the operator turn to talk to him. Employee #1 stopped for a second and then realized that the operator was starting to work. He was continuing across the roll conveyor when an approximately 3 ft high unit of lumber struck him from behind and carried him into another unit of lumber, breaking his left ankle. The operator said that he thought he was starting up the molder, but an identical FORWARD, REVERSE and STOP switch for the roll conveyor is next to the molder switch and he hit the wrong button. The operator said that he did not look to see if the area was clear because he did not intend to start the conveyor. There was a 2 1/2 to 3 ft gap between the units. The immediate cause of the accident was that the operator started the conveyor by mistake, but the more basic cause was that the walkway passed through a conveyor. The employer was cited for a serious violation of section 3272(b) for not providing a clear walkway.

Keywords: FRACTURE, WORK RULES, WALK PLATFORM, ROLLER CONVEYOR, CAUGHT BETWEEN, LUMBER, STRUCK BY, ANKLE, INATTENTION, UNSTABLE POSITION