Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Heine Express, LLC, 107 Dayton Lane, TABOR, SOUTH DAKOTA 57063
on — Fractures, affecting the chest, except internal location of diseases or disorders.
Final narrative
An employee was unloading cattle. While in the pen, a steer came from behind and knocked him over. The steer then stepped on the employee and kicked the employee in the head. The employee was hospitalized for broken ribs and a bruised forehead.
HospitalizedChest, except internal location of diseases or disordersCattle and other bovines
An employee was moving a horse from a pen to the arena to clean stalls. The horse made a sudden and unexpected movement and stepped on the employee's ankle. They sustained an ankle fracture and dislocation.
An employee was transferring cattle to an alley when a cow knocked the employee down and stepped on their leg. The employee sustained a femur fracture.
At about 2:00 p.m. on May 13, 2022, an employee was holding a horse's hoof while washing it with medicated shampoo. The horse became startled and moved his hoof to the cement ground, catching the employee's right ring finger and amputating it above the nail.
An employee slipped and fell in a dairy heifer barn. The cows panicked, ran, and trampled the employee, who suffered contusions all over the body, a collapsed lung, and liquid inhalation.
An employee had dumped a load of hot mix (tar) and was cleaning the interior walls of a belly dump trailer onsite. The employee was scraping the walls of the trailer when the doors articulated, breaking the securement pin and pinching the employee's legs. The employee sustained crushing injuries and severed tendons and arteries to both legs and was hospitalized.
An employee was transferring sulfuric acid into a customer's tank. They connected the transfer hose to the receiving tank and attached the compressed air line used to pressurize the trailer. An air valve opened during unloading and a small amount of sulfuric acid got under the employee's face shield and onto their face. The employee suffered third-degree chemical burns to their face, right ear, and chest.
An employee was working to adjust a misfed pallet board that was entering the pallet board collection point. His left middle fingertip became caught between the board he was adjusting and other boards already stacked in the collection area. This resulted in amputation of the fingertip.
On July 22, 2025, at approximately 4:30 a.m. after the previous day's shift, an employee was hospitalized with a kidney injury caused by heat-related illness. The employee had worked several consecutive days delivering packages in high outdoor heat and humidity without cooling gear.
On July 18, 2025, an employee was tarping a load on a flatbed trailer in the yard. He fell approximately 13 feet off the loaded trailer and landed face-down on a gravel lot. The employee sustained facial cuts, abrasions, scrapes, fractures to their face, as well as several fractured ribs. He was hospitalized.
An employee was moving a tensile strength test device with a dolly. The device fell from the dolly onto the employee's right leg, causing a compound fracture.
An employee was walking past a crossover conveyor when a ramp came down and hit them in the back. The employee sustained a broken back vertebra, as well as a concussion, and was hospitalized.
An employee was using a hook tool to pull a pallet onto the lift gate of a tractor trailer. The hook detached from the underside of the pallet, causing the employee to fall backward off the lift gate. The employee landed on the concrete parking lot about 5 feet below, suffering fractures to the skull and two thoracic vertebrae.
An employee was walking on a truss table when he lost his balance and fell approximately 3 feet to the floor. The employee sustained a dislocated and fractured left ankle.