Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1435037.015 - Great Dane Trailers

Inspection Information - Office: Little Rock Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 10:30 p.m. on September 12 or September 13, 2019, an employee was working for a firm that manufactured truck trailers. He was operating a rivet machine or rivet squeezing machine. As the machine was operating, a component, the anvil, fell off the machine. The employee retrieved the anvil. He had his left hand on the machine as he positioned the anvil with his right hand. The anvil was located at the machine's point of operation. The machine had a two-hand actuation system. The two-hand actuation system consisted of two switches. The first switch was a button depressed by one hand, and the other was a pressure switch depressed by the other hand. With his left hand, the employee depressed the button on top of the machine at the same time that some part of his body depressed the pressure switch. The machine actuated. The employee's right thumb was pinched in the point of operation. The thumb tip was traumatically amputated proximal to the nail bed by the riveter. The employee was treated without hospitalization. Employees were exposed to an amputation hazard because the employer did not fit the rivet squeezer machine with an effective means to prevent the operator from having any part of his body in the point of operation while the machine was energized. The employer's means for removing the operator's exposure to the amputation hazard was the use of a two-hand actuation system. There was no other guard or means to prevent the operator from placing any part of his or her body in the point of operation.

Keywords: Amputated, Amputation, Fingertip, Hand Control, Lockout, Lockout/Tagout, Machine Guarding, Machine operator, Metal Shop, Pinched, Point Of Operation, Rivet Press, Thumb, Traumatic Amputation, Two-Hand Control, Unguarded