Man's arm severed in accident
News editor
SANDPOINT — A Bonner County man’s arm was severed when it became caught in the conveyor belt assembly of a dry screening machine on Wednesday.
Neil Tucker, 59, was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was listed in satisfactory condition on Thursday, a hospital official said.
Two of Tucker’s friends who were at the accident site on Thursday said it was their understanding that surgeons were unable to reattach Tucker’s left arm, which had been torn off just below the shoulder.
The industrial accident happened shortly after 1 p.m. at a work site in the 2300 block of Great Northern Road. The site is located on property to the west of SilverWing, a fly-in residential development next to Sandpoint Airport.
Tucker reached into the running sorting machine to clear a clog when his hand was was snagged, pulling his arm into the machine, according to Sandpoint Police Chief Mark Lockwood.
“It could have killed him,” Lockwood said.
Arteries in Tucker’s upper arm, including the brachial artery, were severed in the accident, but he miraculously did not bleed to death.
Tucker was working alone at the time of mishap and called 911 on a cellular phone, said Sandpoint Fire Chief Robert Tyler. Firefighters and paramedics arrived to find Tucker conscious and upright, Tyler said.
“He was in major shock,” said Tyler.
The machine Tucker was operating, a Powerscreen, consists of a large hopper and a shaker separated by a conveyor belt. Dirt is fed into the hopper with a front-end loader and conveyed upward to the shaker attachment, which separates topsoil from rocks, branches and other debris.
Tucker reached into an area below the hopper, where the conveyor belt loops around a large drum, Tyler said.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration office in Boise were not immediately available for comment on Thursday, nor were officials from the Idaho Industrial Commission.
Tyler, however, doubted the accident met the criteria for an OSHA investigation because there was only one injured person and no fatalities.