Massachusetts temporary laborer is crushed in baler at recycling facility.
NIOSH 1996 Sep; :1-5
On March 10, 1996, a 43 year old male temporary laborer was fatally injured when he fell into a box/can horizontal baler and was crushed. The laborer had been pushing boxes into the vertical feed hopper of the baler when he climbed onto the edge of the hopper to push with his foot. He fell into the baler and was unable to climb out. He yelled for help, but co-workers could not tell where the sounds were coming from. The baler cycles automatically and the victim was crushed by the horizontal ram. Finally, the foreman realized what must have happened and ran over and shut down the machine. Emergency medical services were called immediately. The victim was removed from the machine by emergency personnel and was pronounced dead on the scene by a Medical Examiner. The MA FACE Program Director concluded that to prevent similar future occurrences, employers should: 1. (Together with temporary agencies) ensure that all operators of equipment are trained in the proper operation and potential hazards of that equipment. 2. Establish safe procedures, including a lockout/tagout program, for removing jammed material from balers. 3. Investigate work process or technological changes that would minimize the hazards of machine jams. 4. Provide training to all workers on machine safety and responding to emergency situations.
Region-1; Accident-analysis; Accident-prevention; Accidents; Injuries; Injury-prevention; Traumatic-injuries; Work-operations; Work-analysis; Work-areas; Work-performance; Work-practices; Safety-education; Safety-equipment; Safety-measures; Safety-monitoring; Protective-measures; Training; Equipment-operators; Machine-guarding
Field Studies; Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation
NTIS Accession No.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Massachusetts Department of Health