Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1480956.015 - Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Birmingham Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 5:15 p.m. on June 25, 2020, an employee was working for a dairy. In the dairy's large cooler area was a mechanism known as the Axium Inc./Dairy Conveyor Corporation (DCC) chain palletizer number 1. The chain palletizer consisted of four main parts: a pallet dispenser unit (PDU), a pallet pusher unit (PPU), a palletizer unit (PU), and a conveyor unit (CU). The chain palletizer was also equipped with a Strapex Endra H2M WT strapping machine. It was located next to the palletizing station (PPU) and straddled the conveyor (CU). This was a large combination machine built specifically for this site. The safety inspector was not able to locate model and serial numbers without having to implement LOTO. The employee was trying to clear a jam or reposition a gate or sensor in the pusher area of the chain palletizer. He went through a gap between the framing of the equipment and a safety gate door. He did not open the interlocked safety gate door to stop the equipment before entering the machine. When the case support panel moved back to the start/home position, the employee was caught between the case support panel and the case pusher equipment frame. He sustained mechanical asphyxia. He was killed. A video of the incident showed that the employee was trying to make the equipment automatically cycle by either clearing a jam, repositioning the product, and/or activating an equipment sensor when he was caught-in between the fixed PPU equipment frame and the moving stack stabilizer. This was a multi-employer worksite. There were three inspections associated with this investigation. 1483008 was for a compliance firm. 1483031 was for a refrigeration firm. 1480956 was for the dairy.

Keywords: Asphyxiated, Crushed, Interlock, Jammed, Lockout, Machine Guarding, Neck, Palletized Cargo, Pinned, Power Trans Appar, Slippery Surface, Torso, Training, Walking Surface