Worker suffers severe injury when hand is caught in machine at Ohio corrugated packaging company

Employer name: Safeway Packaging Inc.

Inspection site: 300 White Mountain Drive, New Bremen, Ohio

Citations issued: March 3, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Toledo Area Office cited Safeway Packaging Inc. for two repeated and three serious safety violations.

OSHA investigated at the corrugated packaging company after a worker suffered a degloving injury of the left hand. The injury occurred when an air hose the employee was using to clean scrap away from a press, came into contact with a powered conveyor.

The federal agency cited the company for:

• Failing to train employees before performing electrical work, and in machine safety procedures.
• Exposing workers to operating machinery parts during service and maintenance because locking devices were not used.
• Not providing electrical personal protective equipment.

Quote: “Each year, hundreds of workers suffer injury because employers fail to use and train workers on safety procedures,” said Kim Nelson, OSHA’s area director in Toledo. “Safeway Packaging was cited for similar violations in 2012. Employers with repeat violations demonstrate a lack of commitment to employee safety and concern for the well-being of their workers.”

Proposed Penalties: $69,000

View citations here.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s Toledo Area Office at 419-259-7542.