Repet, Inc.: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Feb 26, 2014: Worker injured when struck by pipe wrench

At approximately 9:00 a.m. on February 26, 2014, Employee #1, a 22-year-old male material handler, with Kamran Staffing Inc., assigned to work at Repet Inc., wa s working with another coworker in the mud press area on line number one. Employ ee #1 transported barrels of mud using a forklift and the coworker assisted in d umping the mud into machine by cranking the barrel. During the process, the mud press became jammed; Employee #1 went to look for a mechanic while the coworker swept the floor. Employee #1 met another coworker and told him that the mud pres s was stuck and he needed to unjam the machine. Employee #1 went back to the mud press area and tried to unjam the machine by rotating the shaft of mud press us ing a Kobalt 24-in. pipe wrench, when another coworker came by in a forklift to bring barrels of mud. The coworker on the forklift asked what Employee #1 was do ing and he told the coworker that he was trying to unjam the machine. Employee # 1 was rotating the bottom shaft as coworker on the forklift was leaving the area . Suddenly the pipe wrench started to spin on the bottom shaft and it flew out t oward Employee #1. It hit Employee #1 on his left inner thigh. Employee #1 suffe red an unspecified fracture injury as the result of being struck by the wrench. The incident was caused because the equipment was not de-energizing or disengagi ng from the power source of the machine nor mechanically blocked or locked out t o prevent inadvertent movement or release of stored energy. Repet Inc. was a pro cessor of post-consumer PET bottle waste. Employee #1 was a contract worker with Kamran Staffing Inc., who had worked at Repet Inc., since November of 2013.