Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: LOCKOUT

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to: a) Employees climbing onto the east wall red, orange and green run out belts to perform unjamming operations were exposed to the hazard of being struck by or caught between packages due to the unintended start up of the conveyor. Among other methods, one feasible and acceptable method of correction is the implementation of an equipment lockout procedure which will assure that deenergized equipment cannot be reactivated by persons other than those performing the unjamming. Specific deficiencies in the deenergizing procedures were: 1) The equipment was not locked out. 2) The location of the stop buttons was 15' from the unjamming location and were readily accessible to other employees. 3) The actual deenergizing and reactivating of the belts were performed by persons other than those performing the work. 4) The belt located above the conveyor being climbed on was not consistently being deenergized (as required by the company program).