Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1559953.015 - The Pines Golf Course At Fort Eustis

Inspection Information - Office: Norfolk Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 11:00 a.m. on October 20, 2021, an employee was working at a golf course located on a military base. He was operating a Reelmaster 3100-D tee mower, with serial number 03200-240000335. He was mowing the black tee boxes by hole number nine. He got off the mower to replace the tee markers in the turf. He did not turn off the mower before dismounting. The mower had an inoperable and bypassed seat safety switch. Consequently, the reels would still spin without an operator at the controls. While off the mower, the employee noticed a stick caught in the left side front mower reel. He attempted to dislodge the stick by grabbing it with his left hand. His left hand was struck by the spinning reel. The end of the middle finger on his left hand was traumatically amputated. He immediately went to the clubhouse. The program manager transported the employee to the hospital. The employee was hospitalized. The course owned two Reelmaster 3100-D tee mower. Both had inoperable seat safety switches. A functioning switch would power off the mower's reels when the operator got up from the seat. The site mechanic stated that the seat safety switches had been bypassed. This was due, he thought, to the poor condition of the seats, which allowed the switches to activate erroneously. The switches had been inoperable for at least four years, since 2017. The seats had severely degraded outer linings, exposing the seat's internal foam to the elements. Water was able to penetrate the foam and seep into the inner material of the seat. The water reached the seat safety switches and caused erroneous activation., The seat safety switches were bypassed so that the equipment could be operated. Starting in 2017, the site supervisor had been submitting purchase order requests for the repair and replacement of the equipment. All purchase order funding requests had either been denied or were still pending. The mowers, operating at 3,500 hours, were well past their expected lifespan of 2,500 hours.

Keywords: Amputated, Amputation, Blade, Bypass, Defective Equipment, Equipment Operator, Finger, Fingertip, Inadequate Maint, Landscaper, Landscaping, Lawn Mower, Machine Guarding, Partial Amputation, Rotating Parts, Safety Device, Safety Sensor, Struck By