Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300781119 - Atlas Carpet Mills Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 9:45 a.m. on March 6, 2003, Employee #1 was performing his duties as a wingman for Atlas Carpet Mills. The employee has worked for Atlas Carpet Mills, a carpet manufacturer and seller located at 2200 Saybrook Avenue in Los Angeles, California, for 23 years. Employee #1 was in the finishing department cleaning the guide tracks of a Gowin-Card Inc. carpet finishing range. The machine was energized and running during the cleaning which was common practice. The employee was using a 9-in. long putty knife/scraper to scrape the latex off of the machine's guide tracks near one of the running tenter chains. Part of this tenter chain contains sharp pins which grips the carpet and pulls it through the finishing range. While scraping the latex from the track, the pins of the chain caught the scraper pulling the employee's hand into an area where the chain runs pass a member of the machine's frame. The employee's right thumb got caught in between the running chain and the frame of the machine avulsing the soft tissue at the tip of the thumb. A portion of the bone of his thumb had to be subsequently removed in order to repair the damage. Employee #1 was not hospitalized. The employee's direct supervisor was in the finishing area completing a report at a small table next to the finishing range in close proximity to the accident site. Investigation shows that the accident was caused by the employer allowing the finishing range to be cleaned while energized and running rather than stopped with the power source de-energized or disengaged and the moveable parts mechanically blocked or locked out to prevent inadvertent movement.

Keywords: MAINTENANCE, AMPUTATED, WORK RULES, MACHINE OPERATOR, CAUGHT BY, THUMB, LOCKOUT