Artic Mechanical, Inc.: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Feb 27, 2012: Hvac mechanic is severely injured by rotating shaft

At approximately 2:00 p.m. on February 27, 2012, Employee #1, a 45-year-old male HVAC mechanic, was doing refrigeration maintenance at a retail drug store to ev aluate and repair the source of the water leak. At the time of the accident, the employee was running the HVAC unit to observe how the water was draining from t he second floor housing of the fan and condenser coil. As he bent down to adjust the drain pan, the back part of his jacket was caught by an unguarded rotating shaft of the air conditioning fan. He struggled and freed himself as he was bein g pulled into the machinery, but not before receiving substantial lacerations to his head, face, and shoulders. He was hospitalized for three days for his injur ies, which also included partial amputation of his ear lobe. Investigation also revealed that the HVAC unit should have been deenergized, disengaged or mechanic ally blocked prior to the repair. The findings also showed that use of proper ex tension tools also could have prevented injury.