Inspection Detail

Inspection: 313381493 - Ds Waters Of America Inc Dba Sparkletts

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 7:00 am on June 5, 2010, Employee #1, of DS Waters of America, was working with a depalletizer machine. The depalletizer is a material transportation conveyor type of equipment. A Forklift places a pallet of stacked empty 5 gallon water bottles (5 rows and 3 columns) to the unit. Single bottles would be retrieved and would eventually enter the line and the pallets would be automatically stacked. Employee #1 was injured in the area of the machine where there was a moving plate called the load rake. It moved the empty bottles to one side and then it came back with the empty pallet, which is later stacked automatically. According to Employee #1, bottles fell and he pressed the e-stop, entered the machine, picked up the fallen bottles and restacked them. As he tried to get out, his upper body was crushed in between the plate and side wall frame of the machine. Employee #1 was hospitalized for about five weeks. He suffered bruised heart, punctured lungs, broken ribs, fractured shoulder, etc. There were no direct witnesses to the accident. However, there were two employees nearby - Employee #2 and Employee #3. Employee #2 saw Employee #1 climb up on the machine. He later noticed that Employee #1 was still in the same position. He called Employee #1's name three times and did not get a response. He ran towards him and called for help and for the mechanic. Employee # 4 was able to get him out and another coworker performed CPR. Then, the fire department came, and he was transported to the hospital for treatment.

Keywords: HEART, FRACTURE, LUNG, SHOULDER, CPR, CRUSHED, CONVEYOR, RIB, PALLET