Equipment That Starts Without Warning Kills

Catch the missing lockout before the machine wakes up

When workers service, clean, or clear a machine, the deadliest hazard is unexpected startup or stored energy releasing while a hand or body is inside. Without proper lockout/tagout, a machine can energize, cycle, or discharge and catch a worker in an instant. OSHA Scan analyzes photos of equipment under service to flag missing lockout devices, live energy sources, and exposed moving parts before anyone reaches in.

• An equipment contact incident is when a worker is caught, struck, or crushed by a machine that energizes, cycles, or releases stored energy during service or maintenance. The root cause is almost always a failure to isolate and lock out hazardous energy — electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical, thermal, or gravitational — before the work begins.
• On site the hazard shows up as a machine being cleaned or unjammed with the power still on, an energy-isolating device with no lock and tag applied, a raised load or ram held only by hydraulics, stored pressure in an accumulator or air line, or a coworker unaware that someone is inside the machine hitting the start button. Shared equipment with multiple servicers and no group lockout is especially dangerous.
• The trap is that a de-energized-looking machine can still hold lethal stored energy — a spring, a raised platen, trapped pressure, or a capacitor. It looks safe right up until it moves. That is why verifying that every energy source is isolated and locked out, ideally confirmed from a photo before contact, is the core of preventing these incidents.