Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300561701 - Occidental Chemical Corp

Inspection Information - Office: Dallas Area Office

Investigation Summary

Employee #1 was at his work station, filling paper bags with silica from the system. Within three minutes of being seen by a passing coworker, he was found unconscious, caught from his head to his hips in the 5 1/2 in. wide gap between two inclined conveyer belts; his arms were pointed down along the direction of the incline. He was killed. A 3 ft section of conveyer belt line ran horizontally about 12 in. from the floor and fed sacks of silica product between the two incline conveyers. The inclined conveyers were stacked, one above the other, to allow the freshly filled silica bags to be compressed into a shape suitable for palletizing by an automatic system. There was a working trip cord for guarding the system approximately 3 1/2 ft above the floor and running horizontally to the floor and the conveyer belt. The cord had not been broken by any apparent fall or slip against it, suggesting that Employee #1 entered the hazard zone by ducking under the trip cord. The conveyer system must have been running when he became caught in it. The lower inclined conveyer belt was designed to stop if the system overloaded, and the inclined belt running parallel on the top side was designed to stop when the receiving end had not encountered a work product within three minutes. At the time this report was written, the medical examiner had not determined the cause of death, but he had not ruled out blunt force or physical trauma. Although the hazardous exposure resulted in bodily trauma, Employee #1's death was not attributable to that trauma. Close coworkers and the company management reported that Employee #1 had a history of heart complications. A complete toxicological screening had not yet been completed when this report was written.

Keywords: CARDIOVASC SYSTEM, HEART, UNCONSCIOUSNESS, CAUGHT BETWEEN, CONVEYOR, MECH MAT HANDLING