Inspection Detail

Inspection: 126178623 - Camino Real Foods Inc Dba Camino Real Kitchens

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

At 11:00 a.m. on October 10, 2002, Employee #1 was working at the Tortilla Oven Number 2 in the bakery department. Camino Real Food, Inc. was engaged in manufacturing frozen Mexican foods. Their main operations involve a bakery, kitchen, wrapping, folding, packaging and quality control. Employee #1 was a machine operator who had worked at the company for 20 years. Employee #1 had 2 years experience as a tortilla making machine operator at the time of the accident. He noticed that the tortillas were coming out black from the oven, so he put on his gloves and removed the panel cover on the oven to clean out debris from the tray. After cleaning and reinserting the tray back into the oven, he spotted a broken tortilla. Employee #1 grabbed it from the conveyor belt and tossed it back to the beginning of the tortilla line. As he tossed the damaged tortilla back to the line, he felt his plastic apron being pulled into the machine by the unguarded sprocket chain drive of the oven. Employee #1 tried to release the apron by swiping his right hand on it. In the process, the sprocket chain drive caught his index finger. Employee #1 pulled out his hand from the glove that was caught on the chain and he found that his right index finger was amputated. He screamed for help and another employee came over and took him to the office. The operations manager took him to the Stacy Medical Center where he was diagnosed with amputation of the right index finger at the level of third middle phalanx. Employee #1 was release from the hospital on the same day.

Keywords: CHAIN, AMPUTATED, FINGER, OVEN, CAUGHT BY, SPROCKET