Lock put on wrong switch; employee’s hand sliced off

Incident summary: An employee suffered the amputation of his left hand because one of his crew mates affixed a personal lock to the wrong electrical disconnect switch.

What happened: Four crew members were assigned to remove sludge that had accumulated on a clogged conveyor auger. One of the staffers affixed his personal lock to what he thought was the electrical disconnect switch for the equipment. The other men didn’t have their personal locks with them.

The four workers removed the guarding from the auger, then placed their hands and arms inside the equipment and began removing gunk from the conveyor’s trough.

Without warning, the conveyor auger activated while the staff members still had their hands and arms in the machinery. One man’s left arm became caught in the rotating auger. His left hand and a portion of his forearm were ruthlessly hacked off by the auger’s blades. He survived the incident, but he no longer has a left hand.

Findings: State safety regulators investigated the incident and hammered the employer with proposed fines totaling $357,700, citing multiple violations of lockout/tagout regulations.

Officials noted that the personal lock was affixed to the wrong electrical disconnect switch, so the conveyor auger wasn’t deenergized prior to the start of the job. Inspectors also said the employer violated group lockout regulations because all four staffers should’ve affixed their personal locks to the disconnect switch.

The crew members also failed to verify that the power had been deenergized before they placed their hands and arms inside the hazardous machine.

(From the July 6, 2026, issue of Safety Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click here.)