Unalaska, AK – The state Labor Department believes that safety violations led to last week's serious accident at Westward Seafoods' Unalaska plant.

An investigator for the department's Labor Standards and Safety Division spent Thursday and Friday at the Westward plant, where an employee lost his right arm in a conveyor belt accident on Wednesday. According to Steve Standley, the acting chief of enforcement for the division, the investigator's report says that safety procedures weren't being properly followed, and that four specific violations allegedly occurred.

Standley described the alleged violations as serious, but declined to specify what exactly they were because the company hadn't been formally cited yet. That process probably will take one to two weeks, and could result in a fine for Westward if the allegations prove to be true.

The victim has been identified as 52-year-old Hiroaki Sato, a Japanese national who was working as a roe technician at the plant. According to the state's report, Sato was trying to adjust the tension on a conveyor belt that hadn't been turned off. His right arm was pulled into the machine and amputated above the elbow.

Sato was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. A Harborview representative said that he had not left the hospital as of Tuesday afternoon, but was unable to provide any further information about his condition.

Westward representatives haven't returned KIAL's calls for comment since the accident.

If Westward is found to have violated safety regulations, it would be the first such serious violation to occur at an Unalaska processing plant since a similar incident more than three years ago. In April 2003, an employee at UniSea's Dutch Harbor plant had his right arm crushed after it got caught in a piece of surimi-processing equipment.

[Correction: KIAL initially reported that UniSea was fined $4,500 for the violations that led to the 2003 accident. Although the penalty was considered, the company ultimately was not fined.]