Safety Definitions
The Definition of Caught-In/Between Hazard
A caught-in/between hazard is the risk of a worker being crushed, pinched, or squeezed between two objects or within moving machinery.
A caught-in/between hazard is the risk of a worker being crushed, pinched, or squeezed between two objects or within moving machinery.
A caught-in/between hazard refers to the risk of a worker's body, clothing, or limbs becoming trapped, pinched, crushed, or squeezed between two objects, within moving machinery, or in a collapsing structure such as an unshored trench. This hazard category is one of OSHA's recognized "Fatal Four" leading causes of construction fatalities, and it commonly arises from unguarded machinery, equipment with moving or rotating parts, or excavation work where a trench collapse can trap and crush a worker.
A worker cleaning a conveyor belt without following proper lockout/tagout procedures reaches near a rotating roller, and their glove becomes caught, pulling their hand toward the pinch point before a coworker triggers the emergency stop, narrowly avoiding a serious caught-in injury.
Common sources include unguarded conveyor systems, rotating machinery such as augers and rollers, hydraulic presses, and heavy equipment with moving parts like gears or pinch points, as well as structural hazards such as unshored excavations that can collapse and trap a worker.
Machine guarding is one of the primary engineering controls used to prevent caught-in/between injuries, physically blocking access to pinch points, rotating parts, and other hazardous areas of machinery, and its removal or bypassing significantly increases the risk of this hazard category.
Trench collapse is classified as a caught-in/between hazard because a worker trapped by collapsing soil can be crushed or asphyxiated by the weight and volume of material, which is why OSHA requires protective systems such as shoring, sloping, or shielding for excavations meeting specified depth criteria.
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