Inspection Detail

Inspection: 125650135 - New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Oakland District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 12:45 a.m. on February 1, 1997, Employee #1 was called to repair a problem on the engine line at New United Motors in Freemont, CA. After completing his work, he noticed three coworkers standing around the jack-in-the box machine on the car assembly line, and walked over to find out what they were doing. He discovered they were troubleshooting because the machine was not returning to its starting position fast enough. At first, they thought it might be that the solenoid was not firing completely. After determining that this was not the problem, they decided to look at the limit switches. The limit switches were located under the floor of the jack-in-the-box machine, so Employee #1 decided to take a look. After watching the operator run the machine for several cycles, he determined that he had about 30 seconds to examine the switches before the machine returned to the starting position. Employee #1 then got on his knees and struck his head under the machine. As he was examining the switches, the machine came down unexpectedly and trapped his head. Employee #1 was taken to Eden Medical Center for treatment. He was an experienced mechanic and had been trained in proper lockout/tagout procedures.

Keywords: HEAD, PINNED, WORK RULES, MECHANIC, LOCKOUT, CAUGHT BETWEEN, LIMIT SWITCH, MECH MALFUNCTION