Mtna Inc.: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Sep 30, 2019: Employee amputates fingertips when caught in conveyor shaft

At 6:20 p.m. on September 30, 2019, an employee was working at a facility which performed the industrial washing of reusable plastic containers used for packaging fruits and vegetables. The employee worked in the wet area on a production line conveyor and his job duties involved removing stickers from the bins. After the containers exit the washing portion of the line, they drop onto conveyor lines into the area where the employee was tasked with removing stickers from the crates before collapsing them and stacking them onto pallets. The employee was working in the area between two conveyor lines to access where the containers entered from the washing area. The conveyor system consisted of a plastic chain on each metal edge of the conveyor, with a shaft with four sprockets connected to a small chain drive immediately after a 90 degree bend in the conveyor. At the time of the incident, the shaft was protruding out from the conveyor by approximately four to five inches. The employee's baggy high visibility short sleeve shirt became caught in the shaft, as well as his fingers within his latex dipped cotton gloves. The employee sustained an amputation of the fourth and fifth fingertips of his left hand and was transported to the regional medical center for treatment without hospitalization.