Struck against moving part of machinery or equipment · Amputations
At a glance
Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Lula-Westfield, LLC, 451 Hwy 1005, PAINCOURTVILLE, LOUISIANA 70391
on — Amputations, affecting the finger(s), fingernail(s), unspecified.
Final narrative
An employee was working on a loose bagasse feeder belt when his right finger come into contact with the belt resulting in amputation.
An employee was welding pipe in a pan vessel. While the employee was repositioning, a component inside the vessel shifted. The employee was wedged between the component and the vessel and suffered two broken back vertebrae. He was hospitalized.
An employee was attempting to remove a chunk of lime from the rotary vein of a silo's rotary valve when the rotary vein pulled his right hand into the valve, resulting in a partial right little finger amputation.
An employee was operating a strip saw. As the employee shut off the saw, their right index and middle fingertips were amputated by the blade before it came to a complete stop.
An employee was using a table saw to cut a piece of wood for wall framing. The wood jumped, causing the employee's hand to move toward the saw, amputating their left index finger and causing a laceration on their hand.
An employee was operating a trim saw. While trying to free a jammed board she had just cut, she came into contact with the running saw blade, which amputated her right thumb.
An employee was adjusting the flat scratcher of a sweep cultivator when the metal tube of the scratcher slid down and caught the tip of the employee's left thumb between the pipe and C-clamp. The employee sustained a left thumb tip amputation.
A crew was building a scaffold inside a furnace. An employee was stabilizing the mudsill and jack as a 10-foot scaffold leg was being connected. The scaffold leg came in contact with the furnace wall, causing a piece of refractory brick to fall. It struck the right side of the employee's mid-back, causing a contusion.
Employees were reinstalling the frame of a mechanical guard onto a raw sugar mixer. A chain fall was used to position the frame so it's weight was resting on the lower pedestal. The chain block was then unhooked, and an employee used a hammer to position the frame so the top bolt holes would be aligned. The bottom of the frame slipped off the pedestal and the frame fell two feet down onto the employee's right arm causing fractures to the radius and ulna.
An employee was tasked with identifying a conveyor system failure. When the employee opened the conveyor, a flash fire occurred. The employee sustained burns to the hands and face and was hospitalized.
An employee was operating package filling equipment when he attempted to loosen clumped sugar in the equipment piping and injured his right hand. He was hospitalized with fractures to four fingers on his right hand.
A driver was exiting his vehicle outside the plant gate when his foot slipped on the top step of the truck. He fell to the ground, landed on his left hip and elbow. The employee was hospitalized with a fractured hip/femur.
A security employee was responding to an urgent call from staff regarding a violent patient. The employee tripped and fell on the floor outside of the stairwell. The employee sustained a closed head injury, contusion of the cerebrum without loss of consciousness, and a closed fracture of the distal end of the right radius.
A temporary employee was testing an electrical starter motor. He was placing tape on the starter while the breaker was not engaged, but the starter sent an arc flash that burned his hands and stomach.
An employee was walking on a sidewalk and stubbed his toe on an elevated portion of concrete, causing him to trip and fall. The employee's right knee was dislocated.