Inspection Detail

Inspection: 125699512 - Pak 'N Save

Inspection Information - Office: Sacramento District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 11:15 a.m. on January 27, 2000, Employee #1, a produce manager at Pak 'N' Save, a grocery store in Elk Grove, CA, was near the time clock checking out when two coworkers asked him for help opening the lid of a dough divider in the bakery department. The coworkers were finishing their early morning baking shift and were cleaning dough from the lid. They had tried several times to open the lid themselves but were unsuccessful. Employee #1 was also unable to open the lid on his first attempt, so he put his weight and legs into pushing the latch handle, leaning over the top of the lid. One of the coworkers was warning Employee #1 that there might be pressure on the lid when the latch handle turned and the lid blew open. The force lifted Employee #1 off the ground and the lid struck him in the face as it blew by. He sustained multiple facial fractures and a lacerated chin. The dough divider was full of rising bread dough and had not been checked for over an hour before the accident. The solid mass of rising dough created a highly pressurized container with little chance of the gas escaping through the dough or out of the machine. There was also no way to detect from the outside the pressure being generated inside the machine.

Keywords: AIR PRESSURE, FRACTURE, LACERATION, HIGH PRESSURE, STRUCK BY, FLYING OBJECT, FACE, PRESSURE RELEASE, INATTENTION