BLUE EARTH RENDERING CO

Employee killed in fall into bin

Employee #1 was using a push broom to push miscellaneous turkey parts that had s pilled onto the floor and put them behind the open tailgate of a semi-trailer. A coworker on a skidloader was scooping up the sweepings and dumping them into th e Equa cooker raw material bin, approximately 3 ft beyond the tailgate of the se mi-trailer, which was raised. The bin was 7 ft 10 in. deep to the top of three 1 4 in. diameter augers. There was no guardrail for the 20 ft wide dump area, only a curb 13 1/2 in. high. The skidloader operator heard a noise that sounded like frozen chunks sliding out of the semi-trailer, hitting the tailgate, then landi ng on the floor. The operator went to check on Employee #1 and found him face do wn in the bin on top of the first auger with a large laceration to the face. He had been killed. Causal factors include unsafe work practices and lack of guardr ails.