Worker Loses 3 Fingers in Restaurant Accident : Safety: State investigating El Torito Grill mishap in which employee’s hand was smashed in tortilla press.

NEWPORT BEACH —  Cal/OSHA is investigating an accident at the El Torito Grill at Fashion Island in which a 24-year-old employee lost three fingers after his hand became stuck in a tortilla-making machine.

Although the incident happened Sept. 12, the state’s industrial safety agency wasn’t informed until Monday, prompting one official to say the restaurant may have violated state law requiring serious accidents to be reported within 48 hours.

Alvaro Rivas of Santa Ana, a restaurant employee for nearly eight years, said in an interview from his hospital bed Monday that he was making tortillas for the lunch hour when the machine’s press slammed down on his left hand.

The machine is dangerous, Rivas contended, because it lacks safety bars that would have prevented his hand from getting caught.

Co-workers tried to get his hand out but the machine had no emergency release buttons, he said. By the time his hand was removed from the machine, which combines a tortilla press and rotating 400-degree oven, his fingers were smashed and burned.

“I was yelling and screaming,” Rivas said. “I was in such pain.”

He said the restaurant manager called 911 and Rivas was rushed to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, where doctors on Friday removed the middle, ring and little fingers of his left hand. Skin taken from his abdomen was grafted to his palm, Rivas said.

It was not the first mishap at the restaurant. On Aug. 1, 1993, a water tank exploded, killing one employee and injuring five others. The Cal/OSHA fined El Torito restaurants $5,000 because the tank had a valve missing.

Michael Casey, chief financial officer for Family Restaurants Inc., the parent corporation of El Torito restaurants, admitted no fault Monday but said the company intends to examine the machine and to “make changes . . . to make it safer than it is today.”

Jim Brown, Cal/OSHA’s district manager in Santa Ana, said the mishap is under investigation and that the company didn’t report the accident until Monday.

“The company is supposed to report to Cal/OSHA an accident within 48 hours,” said Brown. “Failing to report an accident is a violation of (state) law.”

Employers are required to report serious injury accidents. The state’s definition of serious is an injury for which a worker is hospitalized for more than 24 hours for more than observation, or an injury that results in death or permanent disfigurement, Brown said.

Casey said, “we didn’t report (the accident) until today because we weren’t sure of the extent of injuries until today. The man had surgery on Friday and to make sure, we needed to wait until it was an injury to the extent that it required a Cal/OSHA reporting.”

Casey described Rivas as a “good employee.” Rivas was employee of the month for August and was coach of the restaurant’s soccer team, Casey said.