Fort Walton Beach, FL — A 3-year old got his fingers stuck in a pizza oven at a Hungry Howie’s in Fort Walton Beach on Wednesday afternoon. The store’s assistant manager had come in with her son. Reports indicate that she had turned her back on him for only a moment when his hand got stuff in a piece of machinery that helps rotate racks in the oven.
The manager of the store shut the oven down and began extricating the child’s hand until emergency workers arrived on the scene.
A spokesman for the Fort Walton Beach Fire Department says that three fingers on the child’s hand were “severely deformed.”
The child was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola for his injuries.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary
Yes, the reports I’ve read on this make mention that the child was out of his mother’s sight for a moment or two before the accident, so there’s probably something to be said about that. But I think the bigger question is how the child was able to get his hand caught in an exposed piece of machinery in the first place. We’ve seen what happens when someone gets a hand caught in it. We know it’s a safety hazard. So why is this piece of machinery exposed in the first place, to the point where someone is actually able to get a hand stuck in it? In the kitchen of a big restaurant there’s obviously going to be some equipment that, if used improperly, would be able to cause injury. But there are cases in which something can be done about a problem, but just isn’t. It seems like the establishment may need to review its safety protocols.