Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300795226 - Farmers Firebaugh Ginning Company

Inspection Information - Office: Fresno District Office

Investigation Summary

At 6:05 a.m. on November 21, 1996, Employee #1 was using a cotton gin to perform his regularly assigned task. He had been employed at this gin for eight seasons, and during each of those seasons he would clean a gin line every day at the end of his shift. At the time of the accident, he was working on the night shift, which operated the gin from 7:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. At 6:00 a.m., the gin shut down for cleaning. The gin consisted of four lines, which were controlled by the gin operator/foreman in a control booth on the west side of the building. The regular procedure followed by this shift was that the foreman would remain in the control booth and shut down the machines. He would then tell the cleaning crew when they could begin. On the morning of the accident, Employee #1 was cleaning line #4. He opened the front access panel of the #86 Lummus lint cleaner and observed some lint that needed to be removed. He did not notice that the saw had not yet come to a complete stop after the shutdown. He was reaching inside with his left hand to remove the lint when three of his fingers became caught between the grid bars and the saw and were amputated. He was transported by ambulance to Dos Palos Community Hospital. Subsequent investigation revealed that while there was a lockout/blockout program at this plant, and the switch that controlled lint cleaner # 4 was designed to be locked out, the workers on this shift were not following any kind of a lockout program. Other shift leaders required the employees to use their own lock and lockout any machine they were working on, but this procedure was not routinely followed by the night shift. The employer was cited for a violation ofT8CCR 3314(a), serious. In addition, the employer had not conducted an investigation into this accident, as per T8CCR 3203, and a general citation was issued.

Keywords: AMPUTATED, AGRICULTURE, FINGER, WORK RULES, CLEANING, STRUCK AGAINST, LOCKOUT, SAW, CAUGHT BETWEEN, COTTON GIN