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Manufacturer fined $570,000 after hand amputation

Posted On: May. 8, 2017 1:53 PM CST

Manufacturer fined $570,000 after hand amputation

An auto insulation manufacturer in Oregon, Ohio, is facing $569,463 in proposed penalties from federal workplace safety regulators after a machine amputated a 46-year-old worker's right hand, wrist and part of his forearm.

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators found the injury occurred when the Ohio-based employee of Farmington Hills, Michigan-based Autoneum North America was guiding waste materials into a shredding machine and his arm got caught in the machine's point of operation, according to an agency press release issued Thursday. 

OSHA found the company failed to equip the machine with adequate safety guards when the December 2016 injury occurred and issued three willful and two repeat violations of machine safety procedures. 

The company was cited for inadequate machine and point of operation guarding, failing to properly train workers on machine safety procedures for isolating energy sources, not locking out equipment to prevent unintentional energization and exposing workers to struck-by hazards from machine components.

In February 2016, OSHA cited the company for similar machine hazards at another Oregon, Ohio, facility. 

A company spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.