Worker loses part of finger in unguarded machine at bearing manufacturer

Employer name: The Timken Company, Bucyrus, Ohio

Citations issued: May 18, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued one repeated safety violation to The Timken Company, a bearing and power transmission manufacturer. Inspectors from OSHA’s Toledo office opened an inspection after the company reported a 42-year-old worker was injured when he was troubleshooting equipment. 

Investigators found the March 15, 2016, injury occurred as the employee reached for a part on a conveyor and his finger was pinched as an unguarded moving part lowered. The employee sustained abrasion injuries and subsequently the amputation to the end of the left ring finger. Investigators determined the moving part was not guarded.

OSHA has cited Timken twice in the previous five years for machine-guarding violations. The company employees about 285 workers at the Bucyrus site which makes bearings for a variety of industries.

Quote: “The Timken Company’s repeated failure to protect workers from operating machine parts by installing guards is unacceptable,” said Kim Nelson, OSHA’s area director in Toledo. “Last year, 759 Ohio workers suffered preventable amputation injuries.”

Proposed Penalties:  $70,000.

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.