Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1467772.015 - Nehring Electrical Works Company

Inspection Information - Office: Naperville Area Office

Investigation Summary

On November 4, 2019, an employee was working for a firm that made rolled, drawn, and extruded steel, aluminum, and copper wire and cable for the electric power and communications industries. The employee was a machine operator. He was working alone. He was tending to a wire stranding machine, with plant designation S1, as it was in operation. He saw that finished steel wire coming out from the machine had a rough surface and was crooked. He decided to clean the moving steel wire with a handheld fibrous sponge. The employee's gloved hand was caught by the wire and pulled between the forming heads where the stranded wire was compressed on the machine. The employee suffered several injuries to his right hand. He suffered the amputation of his little and ring fingers, a fracture of the middle finger, and the amputation of the tips of his middle and index fingers. He was treated without hospitalization. The firm did not report this incident. During an investigation, the compliance and safety officer learned, from reviewing the injury and illness logs, of three other unreported amputation incidents on stranding machines and other equipment at the plant. The plant manager and human resources manager claimed not to know of their requirement to report the injuries. Before the November 2019 incident, there was an amputation incident on January 1, 2018. The tip of an employee's left ring finger was amputated on the bobbins of a forklift. On February 9, 2018, a worker suffered an amputation on a DB12 wire drawing machine. Neither of the 2018 incidents was reported. There was another unreported amputation incident following the November 2019 incident. This happened on or about February 4, 2020. An employee suffered the amputation of three-quarters of the little finger on his left hand on the plant's S14 stranding machine. Attempts to contact that employee for interview were unsuccessful. The employee in the November 4, 2019, incident was interviewed by phone on April 4, 2020.

Keywords: Amputated, Amputation, Barrier Guard, Bobbin, Caught Between, Caught In, Finger, Fingertip, Forklift, Fracture, Glove, Hand, Instantaneous amputation, Interlock, Machine Guarding, Nip Point, Partial Amputation, Pinch Point, Power Trans Appar, Pulled In, Reporting, Rotating Parts, Slippery Surface, Traumatic Amputation, Unguarded, Walking Surface, Wire Drawing Machine