Inspection Detail

Inspection: 305475014 - Enkeboll Designs

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 8:25 a.m. on January 15, 2004, an employee and his coworker were working with an automatic ripsaw to make moldings at a decorative woodcarving facility. The ripsaw was a Mattison Machine Works "Straight Line", Model Number 404, Serial Number 22353, and was approximately 5.5 feet wide by 10 feet long. The employee was feeding 12-foot-long sections of either two by four or two by six high grade maple lumber pieces into the ripsaw. His coworker was receiving the cut pieces of lumber at the back of the machine. The ripsaw had two sets of anti-kickback guards that span the feed track conveyor back to the hooded blade. As an extra precaution, the saw had a large Plexiglas shield at the edge of the table with two-inch opening for the wood and guide. The ripsaw did not have a spreader, which increased the likelihood of the wood binding on the blade or kicking back. The employee fed a 12-foot-long piece of board into the saw. His coworker stated that he heard a loud "boom" and saw the employee standing with a spear-like shard of wood through the gauntlet of his right glove. The shard was approximately 5 feet long. A large piece of wood had kicked back, past the anti-kickback devices and through the two-inch gap impaling the employees' wrist. The wood entered the wrist laterally, going in behind the thumb on the medial side and exiting on the outer, distal side of the wrist. Paramedics cut the wood down to about two feet and left it in his wrist while they transported him to UCLA Harbor General Hospital. The workers started the saw without inspecting it. The coworker stated that the blade was overdue for sharpening, although the company could not produce a written sharpening schedule. In addition, the anti-kickback devices were packed up with sawdust and pushed more than halfway up. There was an air hose at the table for cleaning out the guards, but company could not produce a written cleaning schedule. The employee was hospitalized for surgery to clean out and repair his wrist. No tendons or arteries were severed by the wood.

Keywords: KICK BACK, WOOD SLAB, IMPALED, GUARD, SAW, STRUCK BY, FLYING OBJECT, WRIST