Inspection Detail

Inspection: 312434632 - J.A. Contracting Labor Management, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Ca Van Nuys

Investigation Summary

At approximately 7:00 a.m. on October 3, 2009, Employee #1 was working for a large farm labor contractor that employed 500 people. It provided farm labor to the agricultural industry. Employee #1 had been working for the firm for two seasons, with a season lasting only 7 to 8 weeks. He was operating a catch-frame pistachio harvester between rows of pistachio plants to collect the nuts as they were shaken off the plants. At the time of the accident, he had just finished a twelve-hour night shift. He and his coworkers were riding on a mobile "bankout" wagon driven by another coworker for transportation back to their personal vehicles. Employee #1 hopped on the front edge of the mobile bankout wagon and sat facing forward, as three coworkers stood inside the empty bed of the bankout wagon, also facing toward the front. As the bankout operator drove along a dirt road taking the workers to their personal vehicles, he inadvertently struck levers near his right knee, as he was seated, causing twin parallel 18-foot-long augers with 4-inch blades to turn on and rotate. The augers caught Employee #1's shirt and pulled him in between the rotating augers, which were separated by 11 inches. The bankout wagon operator immediately turned off augers and stopped the wagon. At that point, Employee #1 was thrown out and onto a dirt floor. Employee #1 sustained deep chest and neck lacerations on his left-hand side. Emergency medical services were called, and Employee #1 was transported by Kern Ambulance to the Kern County Lost Hills fire station, where an air ambulance took him to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California, for treatment. He was hospitalized for three days.

Keywords:chest, agriculture, control lever, farm machinery, caught by, laceration, auger, fall, neck, lost balance