Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Harbor Freight Tools, 2603 Thornton Lane, TEMPLE, TEXAS 76502
on — Fractures, affecting the ankle(s).
Final narrative
An employee was pulling on a strap that was around a box when the strap broke, causing him to fall to the ground and fracture his right ankle.
An employee was moving defective product into a large cardboard box when they tripped over a packaging strap and fell to the concrete floor, resulting in a hip injury.
An employee was helping a customer load a tool box into the back of the customer's pick-up truck. After loading the truck, he fell from the truck and landed on the ground, fracturing his right ankle. He was hospitalized.
An employee was pulling on a bale of corrugated cardboard boxes that were on a conveyor. The straps on the bale failed and the employee fell to the floor. The employee was hospitalized and required surgery for a fractured femur and/or hip.
On December 27, 2023, an employee was delivering mail to an apartment complex when their knee gave out and they fell to the ground. The employee was hospitalized with a left tibia fracture.
An employee was walking to the inventory cage when her ankle gave out and she fell to the floor. The employee sustained a femur fracture and was hospitalized.
An employee was dislodging a pallet that was stuck when boxes of product fell onto them, causing them to fall to the ground. The employee suffered a fractured femur.
An employee was backing up an electric pallet jack when it struck a yellow guardrail, pinning his ankle between the pallet jack and the guardrail. The employee suffered a crush injury to his left ankle and shin.
The injured employee was going to use an elevator to go upstairs. The elevator does not have a call button and is operated manually. The employee approached the elevator and used the elevator drop key located in the elevator key box to manually open the door. He then stepped forward into the elevator shaft. The elevator car was on another floor, resulting in the employee falling down the shaft from the first floor to the basement level. The employee was hospitalized with a sprained left hand and bilateral calcaneal fractures.
An employee was aligning a shipping offload conveyor. A component of the machine caught the employee's left middle finger, amputating it above the second knuckle.
An employee was using a torch to burn off liquid petroleum gas from old 100-pound cylinders so they could be recycled. When he went to move a tank, some gas spilled onto the ground, then ignited in a flash that engulfed him. He was burned on the face, hands, and back and was hospitalized.
After cutting a slab of beef short ribs, an employee turned to grab the pieces he had cut and his right hand contacted the saw blade. The employee sustained an amputation to his right index finger.
An employee was unloading a carpet pad from a truck when they fell from the truck dock to the concrete below, resulting in five fractured ribs and an injury to their left lung.
An employee was walking up a walkway to enter a building through the back entrance when she tripped over the lip of the cement ramp. The employee fell and sustained a fractured right hip.