OSHA investigators arrived in Itasca, IL on Friday, September 8th 2017 and began an accident investigation after learning of an incident at Millenia Products Group, Inc. which had occured on Tuesday, September 5th 2017. A 55 year old man working as a Machine operator was injured on the job when the employee partially amputated two fingered in cycling press br
Accident Date2017-09-05
Accident DegreeNon Hospitalized injury
NarrativeAt 11:00 a.m. on September 5, 2017, Employee #1, a machine operator trainee, was working in the roll form department alone, running a normal production of street light channels on the automatically actuating 100 ton Rousselle press brake, Model number 10K80, and Serial number 23751. The employee approached the machine at its front center to face the actively running operation of automatically cycling dies. Employee #1 then reached into the point-of-operation with his right hand to pick up a lubricant spray bottle that was placed there on the bolster plate, inches away from the closing dies. The employee picked up the spray bottle with his right hand and started spraying die pins about 5 inches away. The vertical clearance between the dies was between eight to ten inches. His left hand was empty and at some point, he leaned near the point-of-operation and the cycle activated, beginning to lower the top die while the employee's left hand was in the point-of-operation. Employee #1s left hand pinky and ring fingers were caught between the top and lower dies. The employee suffered an amputation to the pinky finger, losing the top two knuckles, and his ring fingers middle knuckle was amputated in the center. Employee #1 stopped the cycle by pressing/pulling the die sensor in the danger zone and went for help. Other coworkers responded to the scene while first responders were called. First aid measures were applied and first responders transported the employee by ambulance to a local emergency room. Employee #1 underwent outpatient hand surgery and was released the same day.