Inspection Detail

Inspection: 100797794 - S.S. White Industrial Products Div.

Inspection Information - Office: Avenel Area Office

Investigation Summary

Employee #1 was operating a GEC plastic turret winding machine and had filled both inner rolls of the upper and lower turrets to their capacity of about 1,000 lb. He then moved the full roll on the upper turret to the outside and cut the plastic with a knife to make the automatic transfer of plastic to the new roll. The transfer was not properly made to the new roll, and the plastic began to jam up the machine. Employee #1 stopped the machine and rotated the full roll back to the inside position. As he leaned over the full lower roll to thread the plastic back through the propellers, the upper roll fell about 12 ft, landing across his back, crushing his chest, lacerating his heart and killing him. The four retaining bolts on the turret had loosened enough to permit it to be displaced by the weight of the roll, thus allowing it to fall out of the retaining chuck. This condition may have been exacerbated by the jammed plastic that was wound tightly around the chuck.

Keywords: CHEST, HEART, MAINTENANCE, EQUIPMENT FAILURE, JAMMED, CRUSHED, LACERATION, STRUCK BY, FALLING OBJECT