Decorators Express Inc: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Aug 30, 2004: Employee's arm is injured in fabric machine

At approximately 3:10 p.m. on August 30, 2004, an employee was assigned to opera te the re-rolling machine, a machine that transfers and measures fabric from one roll to another roll. While making a new roll of Vinyl Super17, the office mana ger came and asked the employee to help a customer load some rolls of material. When the employee returned to the re-rolling machine, he noticed that the new ro ll was idling. At the time of the accident, the employee placed his hands on top of the new roll, trying to create tension on the roll of material to keep it go ing. Applying pressure to the roll is usually done by applying slight pressure t o the new roll being formed so that it is tightly formed. Suddenly, the new roll started to spin very fast, catching the employee's left hand between the roll a nd the fabric being measured, and pulling it around the roll and causing a commi nuted fracture of the left forearm. The employee attempted to stop the fabric fr om running by pushing the original roll with his right foot. Unable to do so, he started to yell. The office manager heard him and came quickly outside of her o ffice to see what was going on. The employee was desperately trying to tell the office manager where the emergency shut off button was located. Meanwhile, anoth er coworker who was familiar with the machine came and shut it off and released the employee's left hand. After the accident emergency medical services were cal led. Paramedics transported the employee to Saint Francis Hospital, where he was admitted and treated for his injuries.