Optimus Group, Inc.: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Nov 20, 2012: Disk sander lacerates workers finger

On November 20, 2012, Employee #1, a 35-year old male with Optimus Group Inc., h ad been hired through the primary employer's placement service; to assist in ass embly and fabrication of Aircraft ground Support Equipment (GSE). Employee #1 wa s using a 20 in. Conquest industrial disc sander, model number 20 ARCH, serial n umber 2030371BM with a 2 HP motor, operating at 1,725 RPMs and at the time of th e event had a 36-grit sanding disc. Employee #1 was using the disk sander to smo oth the edges of a 2.5 in. square piece of metal that was approximately 0.1875 i n. thick. Employee #1 had been wearing gloves but removed the gloves and stated that the gloves were too loose and kept getting caught by the sander. Then the e dge of the square piece of metal got loose from Employee #1's hand and his thumb , down to the first knuckle, was pulled into the space between the work table an d the sanding disc causing a serious injury. Employee #1 sustained a serious abr asion/avulsion on the dorsal (nail) side of his right thumb and suffered injurie s to the tendon in his thumb and an avulsion from the nail to the first joint wi th all the nail bed gone. Employee #1 underwent two outpatient surgeries with a third surgery still pending to repair the injury. Employee #1 had limited experi ence in metal fabrication, having worked as a laborer for a sheet metal manufact uring company and a roofing contractor, prior to working at the secondary employ er's facility as an Assembler. Employee #1 had worked at the secondary employer' s worksite since October 22, 2010.