Inspection Detail

Inspection: 310194576 - Safe Haven Products

Inspection Information - Office: Van Nuys District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 8:45 a.m. on September 13, 2006, Employee #1 was working as a manager's assistant at a company that assembled custom order gift baskets. She had been working at that company for eleven months and performing the duties of a manager's assistant for seven months, including cutting ribbons for gift baskets. There are 35 employees at the facility. She was at her regularly assigned task, operating the automatic ribbon cutting machine to make ribbons of a specific length for gift baskets, when the ribbon became jammed in the machine. She pushed the stop button and the cancel button on the machine. Believing that the machine was off, Employee #1 placed her left index linger past the cutting blade to reach the jammed ribbon. As she withdrew her finger and the ribbon past the cutting blade, the cutting blade activated three times in rapid succession, lacerating her left index finger. She was transported to Simi Valley Hospital, where the lacerations were sutured. She was released and referred to a hand specialist. Employee #1 was not working in close proximity to any other employees, so there were no witnesses to the accident. The supervisor was in the office at the time of the accident. After an investigation, it was concluded that the injured employee had been trained on the proper operation and safety procedures of the ribbon cutting machine, but she did not follow them. She was not an experienced operator of this newly purchased machine, and the proper lockout procedures were not followed. As a result, the Division issued a General citation for failure to follow lockout procedures, 3314(d).

Keywords: FINGER, WORK RULES, EQUIPMENT OPERATOR, JAMMED, LOCKOUT, INEXPERIENCE, LACERATION, POINT OF OPERATION, MANUAL MAT HANDLING, BLADE