Inspection Detail

Inspection: 123294563 - The Libner Corporation

Inspection Information - Office: Bridgeport Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 9:00 a.m. on June 12, 1997, Employee #1 was working for Libner when bird feed was delivered from Long Haul Trucking, Inc. The truck had an open top 50 ft long by 102 in. wide trailer with six equally spaced valve compartments along the bottom. When a delivery was made, the truck pulled into the driveway on the east side of the building, where an auger was built into the driveway. The driver was then directed to position the trailer so the valves were directly over the auger, which was used to take the feed up to a bucket elevator between silos #1 and #3. The auger was built approximately 8 ft into the driveway; the remaining 4 ft of the auger was enclosed in a metal guard. The auger was angled from its farthest point into the driveway to the bucket elevator at approximately 45 degrees. When the truck was positioned over the auger, the driver opened each valve to allow the feed to flow into it; the truck had to be moved and positioned for each valve. The auger was covered by two guards: half was protected by a grate on the driveway end and half was protected by a metal box cover that surrounded the entire auger from the end of the driveway to the bucket elevator between the silos. There was, however, a 5 1/4 in. opening between the two covers. At approximately 10:00 a.m., a supervisor instructed the driver, Employee #1, and a coworker to enter the trailer to shovel the remaining feed from the emptied compartments. After clearing the feed from the first five compartments, Employee #1 and the truck driver left the rear of the trailer to move it and to align the sixth valve over the auger. As Employee #1 walked around the driver's side of the truck, he stepped on the metal cover protecting the portion of the auger running between the silos. His foot slipped into the opening between the two guards and then into the moving auger. Employee #1 and the driver tried unsuccessfully to free his foot, and Employee #1 then sent the driver into the base of the #3 silo to turn off the auger. The Shut Off control was approximately 15 ft from the auger. Once the auger was deactivated, Employee #1 and the driver removed Employee #1's foot from it. The coworker who was still in the back of the trailer, heard Employee #1 scream and jumped out. He summoned the supervisor, who was working in the loading dock area approximately 50 ft away from the incident. The supervisor ran inside the building and told the secretary to call emergency services. Employee #1 sustained bruises and contusions, but was not hospitalized. At the time of the accident, neither the auger nor the grate cover were obscured by bird seed or otherwise hidden from view. (Note: Text missing from original report.)

Keywords: ROTATING SHAFT, SCREW CONVEYOR, GUARD, WORK RULES, CAUGHT BY, AUGER, FOOT, INATTENTION