Inspection Detail

Inspection: 122088115 - Delphos Axle Products/Div.Of Fruehauf Trailer Corp

Inspection Information - Office: Toledo Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 1:30 p.m. on September 4, 1996, Employee #1 was temporarily assigned to work on a welder at the air chamber bracket station because the regularly assigned operator was on vacation. This welder was the second of three in-line welding stations that were are all tied together by a common overhead axle handling system. It had been several years since Employee #1 had worked on the welder line, so the line foreman was teaching him about its operation. At the time of the accident, the conveyor system at the second welder was empty because the first welding station, the spider welder, was not running while the operator was adjusting a tack welding torch. Since one of the spools of welding wire was almost empty, Employee #1 and the line foreman decided to install a new roll of wire while the first station was shut down. A new spool was put into position, and they both started to manually feed wire through the wire liner. The wire did not exit the liner and appeared to have become caught in it, so Employee #1 climbed into the machine to free the wire. At about the same time, the spider welder started back up and sent an axle to the second welding station, where Employee #1 was working. The second welder clamped onto the axle on the overhead conveyor and lowered it into the area of the machine where Employee #1 was trying to free the wire through to the welding tips. The foreman looked up and saw the overhead handling conveyor system coming down with an axle gripped in its jaws. Employee #1 became caught under the axle and between it and the transfer rails. He was crushed and killed.

Keywords: WORK RULES, WELDER, JAMMED, LOCKOUT, CAUGHT BETWEEN, CRUSHED, INEXPERIENCE, MECH MAT HANDLING, COMMUNICATION