An incident occurred resulting in serious injury to a female worker. An industrial finger jointer was moving small lengths of cut wood along rollers and taking cut pieces of wood and gluing these together to make longer pieces for other applications. The incident machine area where the accident took place was a portion of exposed shaft that was at a transition between a guarded chain and sprocket and a guarded horizontal shaft-see Figure P17.39. The transition measured 1.25 in. long and was approximately 46.5 in. from the floor, according to the OSHA investigator. At the time of the accident, the employee was reaching through an area of limited access to flip a toggle switch when her ponytail entered the transition area and became entangled in the rotating shaft at the infeed to a carriage saw on the industrial finger jointer, when she was completely scalped. Additional facts in this accident include:
1. The employee was being trained on the operation of the industrial finger jointer on the day of the incident and was working on the industrial jointer at the time of the incident.
2. Prior to the incident the employee was not warned about the inadequately guarded rotating part.
3. The employee did have her hair pulled back into a ponytail at the time of the accident.
4. The guard was inappropriate for the machine in that it allowed the employee's hair to reach rotating parts (without removal of the guard).
5. The machine's activation/deactivation switch was located in an unsafe position.
6. The employer did not have a policy in place that required employees to keep their hair at a certain length or pulled up and back.
7. The employee was not warned of the dangers she would encounter when properly operating the machine.
8. The employee was not required to read the machine's operation manual.
9. There was no warning label located on the rotating part or on the guard around the rotating part wherein the employee's hair was caught.
10. The OSHA report states, "The employer was aware of the requirement for guarding of rotating shafts from the previous inspections. The main portion of the shaft was guarded, but a small portion between the guarded chain and sprocket and the guarded horizontal shaft was unguarded at the time of the accident." Search the OSHA regulations at http://www.osha.gov and specifically review the regulation 29 CFR 1910.212, General requirements for all machines. Write a paragraph relating this regulation to this incident. Also, list ways in which this accident could have been prevented.
