30 year old female factory worker
Employee for 10 years, 2nd shift
Family: husband, 3 small children
Equipment:
I was called in to investigate an industrial accident. The accident happened three days before I opened the case. I was briefed by the company attorney as to what happened. I was there for damage control. If it was the companies fault, they needed to know. Regardless they would work with her though her healing and grieving process.
Summary
Apparently, a female worker reached into a narrow opening with her right arm to pull off a sticker that was on a can. The cans were on a pallet with 100 cans on each row, 10 rows high. They were on a hydraulic lift, which was on its way up to a platform 10 feet off the ground. She squatted down to the floor, with her right arm reached down below her feet, though railing to grab the sticker to save time. She misjudged how fast the pallets were rising and didn't pull her arm out fast enough. The hydraulic lift severed off her right arm above her elbow as it caught between the lift and the frame of the machine. She fell to the ground and yelled for help. A co-worked picked up the severed arm and placed it on ice. Havoc was the scene as the floor supervisors didn't know how to handle this emergency. Paramedics were called, and all machines were shut down. This took place at 11:00 pm as the shifts were changing. The 3rd shift was shut down until a complete internal investigation took place as to how this happened.
There are three shifts that run seven days a week, with no shut down time. Each shift has thirty five employee's including management. I need to interview each employee on the second and third shift's as to what they saw the night of the accident. Management is being questioned as to why a break down happen during an emergency. I also need to find out what safety course's are being held and how often
Day 1
I arrived at 6:00 pm unannounced as to catch everyone off guard. No one knew I was coming to investigate the accident on line number 1.
Line number 1 has four stations.
Station number 1 was the injured employee's platform. It is ten feet off the ground. There is a latter that you must climb up in order to reach the platform. The duties of station 1 is very simple. Off to the left on the ground, a fork lift places a pallet with 100 cans on each row, 10 rows high on a hydraulic lift, which rises to the level of the platform ten feet up. Once the hydraulic stops, the operator then reaches in to the very first can on the corner closest to the operator and removes a sticker. This sticker tells station 2 what labels are placed on the cans. The operator with her hand, moves the cans down a conveyor belt, they move single file on metal rollers until they reach station 2. That's the job for station 1.
Station number 2
This is the label machine that places labels on cans. In one motion, glue and the label are placed and pressed onto the can, then continues down the conveyor belt to station 3
Station number 3
This station place cans into a box and continues it down the conveyor belt to station 4
Station number 4
This is the final station in the line. With cans labeled in a box, this machine, tapes the boxes up, and places a shipping label on the outside. Then boxes and placed on a pallet and the fork lift operator moves the platted into the warehouse for delivery.
There are 4 lines in this warehouse. I need to compare station 1, Line 1 with the other machines. Find out if there different in any way.
This is what I think happen, after looking at the machines. Standing where the employee was and reenacting what she may have did. The employee didn't wait for the hydraulic to come level to the platform and a complete stop. She squatted down to the floor, with her right arm reached down below her feet, though railing to grab the sticker to save time. She misjudged the speed of the hydraulic, couldn't pull her arm back fast enough, with the result of her arm being severed above her right elbow. There are safety rails in place so no body part can come into contact with the hydraulics. There is a four by four inch gap where she squeezed her arm though.
Rail
I started with the second shift, this was the shift the employee worked. I immediately interviewed the manager down to middle management to the line leads. No one was very happy to see me. I was a threat to there job. They thought that if I found problems in there leadership, they would be fired, they were right in thinking that. Each interview took 45 minutes. I laid down my digital voice recorder on the desk in the room I was interviewing in. You should have seen there faces when they discovered that everything they say would be used in court, priceless. There are 10 in management down to the line leads in each shift, and 25 workers. I only interviewed the general manager, warehouse manager, assistant manager, line manager and the shipping manager, I ran out of time and will continue tomorrow. It looks like I will be here for several days, maybe even a week. There are many workers that do not speak English and will have to have an interpreter, these interviews may take up to an hour and a half each.
Called it a night and stayed at a local Hotel.
Day 2
3:00 pm, the beginning of the second shift. The managers were still pissed at me and word spread very fast about the recordings. I finished the interviews with the managers, the safety programs that are supposed to be held monthly aren't. They are supposed to have a safety support person and they don't, along with other issues. I was assured that by the end of my interviews, they will have the safety support staff in place.
I asked for a list of names for the twenty five workers and had them lined up to interview back to back. Several of them didn't show up to work in fear of being deported.
More to follow soon........
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