Worker’s arm fractured when caught in machine at window manufacturer

Employer name: Vista Window Company LLC

Inspection site: 1701 Henn Parkway Southwest, Warren, Ohio

Citations issued: March 17, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Cleveland area office cited Vista Window Company for two repeat, two serious and one other-than-serious safety violations.

OSHA opened an investigation of the window manufacturer after a 22-year-old employee’s right hand was caught in the rollers of a glass press he was cleaning. The worker suffered fractures, nerve and tendon damage.

Inspectors found:

• Locking devices were not used to prevent workers from coming in contact with moving parts during service and maintenance.
• Machines lacked guarding.
• Injuries were not recorded or reported, as required. 

Quote: “This was a preventable injury had Vista followed common-sense safety standards to prevent workers from coming in contact with operating machine parts,” said Howard Eberts, OSHA’s area director in Cleveland. “Each year, hundreds of manufacturing workers are injured on the job. Employers can do better.”

Proposed Penalties:   $44,500

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 Cleveland Area Office at 216-447-4194.