Inspection Detail

Inspection: 126749696 - Balkamp Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Utah Division Of Occupational Safety And Health

Investigation Summary

Employee #1, a SOS Staffing Services temporary employee, had been working for Balkamp, Inc., for three days packing carburetor kits. The packing operation is conducted on a mezzanine located 9 ft above a storage area; the entire mezzanine area is protected with an employee guardrail and toe board. The packing operation involves gathering parts for a kit, placing them in a small interior box, putting 20 small interior boxes into an outer packing box, and placing the 11 1/2 lb packing box on a pallet. When a pallet is complete, it has 28 packing boxes and is moved with a pallet jack from the assembly table to a gate area for removal with a forklift. When the gate is open to allow a forklift to remove the pallets, the gate area is sufficiently blocked by the pallet that an employee is prevented from falling from the mezzanine to the floor. When the gate area is not servicing a pallet, the gate is closed and secured. On the day of the accident, Employee #1 had completed 26 outer packing boxes when another employee moved the pallet to the forklift gate area. Employee #1, who knew that a complete load required 28 boxes, carried another completed outer box to the pallet. Employee #1, who is 64 in. tall, stood on the left front corner of the 4 in. high pallet to reach the sixth level, which was 78 in. high. ( A regular complete load of 28 boxes, 4 boxes per level, 7 levels high, is 90 in. high.) When she stepped from the pallet, she misjudged her location and fell 9 ft to the storage area. She was hospitalized with a concussion and finger lacerations.

Keywords: HEAD, PALLETIZED CARGO, FINGER, WORK RULES, LACERATION, FALL, CONCUSSION, UNGUARDED, INATTENTION, UNSTABLE POSITION