Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at AmeriGas Propane, Inc., 656 S Janesville Street, WHITEWATER, WISCONSIN 53190
on — Fractures, affecting the lower leg(s).
Final narrative
An employee was delivering mail to a mailbox when she slipped on ice/snow and broke her lower leg.
An employee was filling propane cylinders at a customer location when a flash fire occurred, resulting in burns to the face that required hospitalization.
An employee was servicing a propane tank when the tank began venting excess propane and an ignition source caused a flash fire. The employee sustained second degree burns to the face, arms, and legs.
An employee was pulling a delivery hose from a bobtail trailer and tripped over the hose. The employee pulled a muscle in his right calf, resulting in hospitalization and surgery.
On February 22, 2016, at about 10:39 a.m., an employee was delivering a propane gas tank when he fell from the gangway to a barge and into the water, injuring his eye. He was hospitalized and had surgery for a possible eye socket fracture.
An employee was working in the forest flagging an area to be harvested. He took a step and his foot slipped on a stick hidden under the leaves, causing him to fall to the ground. He landed on his right foot/lower leg resulting in a fractured tibia.
An employee was inspecting an apartment to ensure it was ready for a new resident to move in. The carpet in the apartment had been recently cleaned and was still wet. As the employee went from the carpet to the tiled floor of the bathroom, they slipped and fell, resulting in a torn left hamstring.
An employee was delivering a letter along a rural carrier route when she stepped on an ice-covered snow drift, slipped, and fell to the ground. The employee sustained a right hip fracture that required surgery.
More severe injuries in this industry (NAICS 454310)
An employee was connecting a hose to fill a propane cylinder. The flow of propane was activated when the filler nozzle was partially connected to the cylinder. The nozzle detached from the cylinder valve, causing expanding liquid propane to release through the nozzle. This caused the employee to lose his balance, spin, become entangled in the hose, and fall. He struck his head on the ground and suffered fractures to the temple and cheekbones, a laceration on the forehead, and a brain bleed. The employee was hospitalized.
An employee was filling a motor fuel cylinder from a bobtail. When he opened the handle on the fill nozzle it popped off the filler valve and pushed him back into a rack where he struck his head on a cylinder cage. He sustained a laceration to the back left side of his head. While working to wrestle the hose to the ground, he sustained burns from liquid propane on the right side of his chest and right arm, and sustained minor burns on the left side.
An employee had been refueling empty propane tanks at a site. He drove back to the bulk plant facility and began to feel ill. The employee sustained dehydration due to heat.
An employee was pumping liquid propane from a propane delivery truck to a storage tank. After the transfer was completed, the employee closed the valves and disconnected the transfer hose. During the transfer, the liquid propane auto-refrigerated the riser pipe of the storage tank and that delayed the vaporization of the propane. Upon reaching a higher temperature, liquified propane began rapidly expanding. Liquid propane then discharged from the pipe and contacted the employee, causing cold burns. The employee was hospitalized for second-degree burns to their torso and arms.
The injured employee was assisting five other employees with bracing a wall panel that was being stood up. Another employee slipped on frost on the floor surface. The employees went to evacuate the area in anticipation of the wall panel falling over. The injured employee went to jump through a window opening within the wall panel and their lower half was crushed by the falling wall panel. The employee sustained a fractured pelvis.
An employee was using a vertical band saw to cut a thick piece of rubber material. While being cut, the material shifted, causing the employee s right hand to contact the moving blade. The employee's thumb was amputated below the knuckle. The employee was hospitalized, undergoing surgery.
A production sanitation employee was pre-rinsing an incline conveyor and noticed cheese stuck between the belt idler. The employee went to remove the cheese and their glove got caught and pulled their left forearm into the conveyor. The employee's arm was fractured. The machine was not locked out/tagged out at the time.
An employee was on a ladder, taking measurements for a new gutter installation. The ladder slipped out from under him and both he and the ladder fell to the ground. He was hospitalized with seven broken ribs and a broken clavicle.
An employee was unloading a truck for a delivery job. While moving boxes in the truck, the employee tripped over a pallet and fell out of the truck to the ground, resulting in four broken ribs.