Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1454012.015 - Amick Farms, Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Department Of Labor, Licensing, And Regulation Division Of Labor And Industry Maryland Occupational Safety And Health

Investigation Summary

At 9:30 a.m. on January 1, 2020, an employee was working as a laborer for a poultry processor. He was arranging chicken thighs skin side down on a conveyer belt that fed into a thigh skinning machine. The machine had an opening that was 24 in. wide by 4 in. tall (490 mm wide by 100 mm tall). The opening was protected by a machine guard. The employee noticed a chicken thigh being fed into the skinning machine skin side up. Attempting to flip the chicken thigh before it entered the machine, he reached under the machine guard to grab the thigh. He stuck his hand into the opening. His glove became caught by a roller inside the machine. The small finger on his left hand was pulled into the point of operation. The tip of his finger beyond the fingernail was amputated. He was treated without hospitalization.

Keywords: Amputated, Amputation, Blind Reaching, Caught By, Finger, Fingertip, Food processing, Glove, Inexperience, Instantaneous amputation, Laborer, Machine Guarding, Machine operator, Point Of Operation, Reach, Reaching, Roller--Mach/Part, Traumatic Amputation