Steven P. Mahrt: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Dec 23, 2019: Employee partially amputates finger when reaching into conve

At 2:30 p.m. on December 23, 2019, an employee who works for a poultry egg production operation was working in the processing facility conducting egg packaging. The facility sits on 20 acres with 10 laying houses holding approximately 100,000 chickens and includes the processing facility that prepares and packages approximately 80,000 eggs per day. During the processing, the eggs are passed through multiple stages before they are placed in cartons and packaged for transport. A Number 18038 Selecta Grader machine is utilized for performing multiple egg processing tasks. The machine is equipped with 16 lanes that includes a green belt conveyor driven by a chain and sprocket drive. The sprocket drive is connected by a drive shaft to a belt and pulley drive powered by an electric motor. The employee works directly for the plant manager (Coworker #1) performing plant maintenance and machine repairs and was troubleshooting a problem with the power transmission to conveyor belt on Lane 7. The employee had worked for the employer for approximately 1 year and 2 months. Coworker #1 directly trained and supervised the employee. Coworker #1 was in working in his office repairing a pump at this time. Coworker #2 (processing supervisor) notified the employee that the conveyor belt was not cycling properly, and eggs were getting broken. The employee looked under the conveyor to see if the drive belt on the motor shaft pulley had broken or had come off the pulley, which were common causes of power transmission failure. The employee could see the belt and assumed that it had come off of the pulley. He reached in to pull on the belt when his finger was caught between the belt and the energized drive pulley. The employee had not deenergized the power transmission before reaching into the conveyor. The employee amputated his right index finger to the distal phalanx and was transported to the hospital, where he was admitted.