Inspection Detail

Inspection: 120302302 - Chicken Of The Sea International

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 3:00 p.m. on June 15, 1999, Employee #1, age 19, and a coworker were using the Bussey loader machine #D in the retort department. They were at the flat conveyor end of the machine, where the conveyor discharged finished cans of tuna onto a 2 1/2 ft long table. From there, the cans were loaded into a 200 lb, 40 in. by 24 in. by 35 ft deep rolling steel basket. The basket was ten layers deep, with cardboard separators between each layer. Employee #1 would deposit the layers of cans from the conveyor into the basket, while the coworker inserted the cardboard separators. When the basket was full, the coworker would wheel it to the distribution area and returned with an empty one. Normally this cycle took between 5 and 6 minutes. At the time of the accident, Employee #1 was at the work table, preventing the last few excess cans on the conveyor from falling to the floor. Normally, this was done with a flat plastic sweeper, but Employee #1 was doing it by hand. The coworker was wheeling an empty basket up to the work table when it caught Employee #1's left middle finger, amputating the tip. He was transported to Long Beach Medical Clinic, and later sent to the Western Hand Center. Employee #1 had not been trained on how to use the Bussey loader machine, even though he had been working in the department for approximately 1 1/2 months. He had also not been told to use the plastic sweeper instead of his hands when working near the heavy steel baskets.

Keywords: LOADING, AMPUTATED, FINGER, WORK RULES, CAUGHT BETWEEN, CRUSHED, CONVEYOR, MECH MAT HANDLING, UNTRAINED