Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1479876.015 - Valley Joist, L.L.C.

Inspection Information - Office: Birmingham Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 10:15 a.m. on June 8, 2020, three workers were working for a firm that fabricated structural metal. The employee's two coworkers were using a machine called a long span bottom chord cutter to cut metal. To get the machine to cut shorter than usual pieces of metal, the coworkers had modified the machine by installing a metal stop in the machine. The employee, unaware that the machine had been modified, came over to relieve one of the coworkers. The employee was catching metal plates as they were cut. The material was binding and sliding down after it was cut. As the employee tried to remove a metal plate from the chord cutter, his right middle finger became caught between the metal plate and the modified stop that had been put in place. His middle finger was crushed. What happened next was not clear. By one reading, the tip of the employee's right middle finger was partially amputated in the machine, and the employee later had to undergo the surgical amputation of his entire finger. As an alternative, after the employee's right middle finger was crushed, he later went in to have the tip of the finger amputated. In that case, the amputation was partial in the sense that only the tip was amputated and not the entire finger. In either case, the employee was treated without hospitalization.

Keywords: Amputated, Amputation, Caught Between, Crushed, Finger, Fingertip, Instantaneous amputation, Machine Guarding, Machine operator, Metal Shop, Miscommunication, Misjudgment, Misjudgment of Hazardous Situation, Modified, Partial Amputation, Surgical Amputation, Traumatic Amputation, Unauthorized