Tabc Inc: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Feb 26, 2002: Employee injured when a punch press actuated

At approximately 5:00 p.m. on February 26, 2002, Employee #1 was working as an o perator in Punch Press No. 3C-3, locaed in the stamping shop of the facility. Th e shop uses punch presses for forming Toyota truck body parts. The machine under consideration is a 300-ton capacity press with 12 to 16 strokes per minute, man ufactured by Shimomura Press Manufacturing Company of Japan, machine model numbe r DCLP-300-22E. The punch press is a part revolution machine with emergency stop pushbuttons installed at five locations including at both hand pushbutton panel s. Pressing one of these buttons causes the slide to stop immediately. In order to ensure the safety of the operator during the downward movement of the slide, the machine is designed to require the use of both hands to press the pushbutton s continuously until the slide reaches the lower dead point. The machine works t wo shifts every working day and it makes about 12 different Toyota truck body pa rts. At the time of the accident, Employee #1 was working by himself. The employ ee had been working in this machine for four years. While changing die for stamp ing fuel tank upper part number 7711102100, Employee #1 pressed the two (hand) p ushbuttons and the slide went down. As he released his hands, the slide/die even tually went up. Employee #1 leaned forward (across) to reach the air ejector val ve for making some adjustments. At that time, the slide came down (for the secon d time) and struck his right elbow. This amounted to 'double cycling' without ac tuating the hand push buttons. According to Employee #1, this feature happened a few times in the past. Employee #1 was a regular employee of TABC, Inc. Employe e #1 was hospitalized in the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center where he was tre ated for an avulsion fracture of his right elbow, soft tissue loss, and nerve da mage. The investigation determined that no lockout/tag out procedure was followe d while adjusting the air ejector valve (during the die change procedure).

Incident on Nov 5, 1999: Employee's hand injured when caught in lamination rolls

At approximately 2:40 a.m. on November 5, 1999, Employee #1 was part of a crew o f mechanics cleaning a large lamination machine, known as the BL9 straightener, in the stamping department of a large car manufacturer. The crew leader was at t he controls operating the machine in the jog mode. Employee #1 was cleaning at t he front of the lamination rolls when his glove became caught and his right hand was pulled into the revolving rolls. The crew leader froze, unable to stop the machine or reverse the direction of the rollers. A nearby coworker stopped the m achine and changed the rolls' direction of movement, freeing Employee #1's hand from the pressing area. He sustained crushed fingers, nerves, and veins, and was transported to Long Beach Medical Center. The machine was not locked out or mec hanically blocked to prevent inadvertent movement during the cleaning operation. The employer was cited for an accident-related violation, serious, of T8CCR 332 8(b).

Incident on Aug 28, 1997 (fatal): Employee killed when struck by falling stack of dies

At approximately 12:15 a.m. on August 28, 1997, Employee #1, a production/crane operator at a truck bed production facility, was standing outside the locker roo m reading the bulletin board at the end of his shift. The bulletin board was in the southwest corner of the hydraulic power press building #2, and dies for the presses were stored in the west end of the building. The dies were stacked on tw o wooden planks that were 3.5 in. by 2.75 in. in cross section and ranged from 3 .8 to 5.2 tons. A stack of four dies fell over and struck Employee #1, resulting in crushing injuries to his lower abdomen and pelvis and an abdominal laceratio n. He died on September 14, 1997. The dies had been placed in the storage area 3 hours earlier by an overhead crane, and the arrangement and placement of the pr ess dies in the stack was done with the crane operator using his best judgment. The bottom die had two large cut outs along its lower edge, facing the direction in which the dies eventually fell. The two wooden planks were located in such a s way as to intersect those cut-outs. Chutes extending out from the side of the bottom die obscured the view of the cut outs when looking down at the side of th e die. There was a lot of vibration in the building at the time of the accident.

Incident on Nov 12, 1990: Employee's head injured in multi-welder machine

At about 9:20 p.m. on November 12, 1990, Employee #1 was in Building #8, changin g a welding tip on the multi-welder machine while it was operating. He had his h ead in line with the welding gun arm and the vertical metal machine column when it became caught between them. He suffered a contusion to his head and multiple lacerations on his head, ears, and face. He was transported to Doctors' Hospital of Lakewood for treatment.