Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at HERSHEY EQUIPMENT COMPANY, 1145 Colebrook Road, MOUNT JOY, PENNSYLVANIA 17552
on — Puncture wounds, except gunshot wounds, affecting the nonclassifiable.
Final narrative
An employee was standing on a mobile scaffold about 3 or 4 feet above the floor when the platform became partially unsecured and tilted. The employee lost his balance and fell into a stand. He was hospitalized with a puncture wound and possible internal injuries in the sternum/chest area.
At approximately 08:30, an employee slipped on ice, fell, and broke his ankle while walking from a building to a truck to gather tools needed for the job. He was hospitalized.
An employee fell through a hole in the 3rd floor to the 2nd floor and landed onto a set of chicken cages. The employee broke two ribs and sustained a fracture in the upper neck.
An employee was walking to their truck to look for a lid. When they stepped between the truck and a dock plate, they sustained a knee injury that required surgery.
An employee was standing on plant bed timbers, using a powered hand trimmer to trim the shrubs in the plant bed. The timber gave way, breaking into several pieces. The employee lost balance and fell with the trimmer in his hand. He suffered a severe laceration to the right wrist and hand.
An employee was loading phosphoric acid onto a rail car and preparing to secure the rail car for transport. While repositioning the loadout spout to secure it back to the drip pan holster on the dock, the spout contacted the handrail of the rail car, causing the employee to lose balance. The employee stepped back and their right foot entered the opening for the rail car, causing him to twist/pivot on his left leg. The employee's lower left leg was fractured.
On November 14, 2023, an employee was receiving a delivery from a truck when some of the merchandise fell from the truck s lift and struck him. He then fell to the ground and his head struck the sidewalk, resulting in an injury that required hospitalization.
More severe injuries in this industry (NAICS 236210)
An employee was fixing a broken purlin at a worksite when they fell from the framing to the concrete floor approximately 19 feet below. The employee sustained brain bleeding and fractures to their face, vertebrae, and wrists.
Employees were removing scaffolding that was used to repair an ion exchange tank. The line was undergoing the regen process when a piece of scaffold struck a PVC pipe that transported hydrochloric acid (HCl). The injured employee was placing material inside a scaffold rack when he was sprayed in the face with HCl and sustained chemical burns to his eyes, face, chest, right arm, and left leg.
An employee was moving a ramming machine to a staging area. While using the controls on the side of the machine, there was a sudden heavy rainfall causing the equipment to slide. The ramming machine tipped over and caught the employee against the ground. The employee sustained a fracture to the right side of their pelvis and was hospitalized.
The injured employee was training a new employee on a dough machine. She went to show where the batter comes from and her right index fingertip was cut. The employee sustained an amputation to the fingertip. The machine was not guarded at the time of the incident.
An employee was operating a roller machine on a dirt slope when the machine hit a bump and fell onto it's side. While trying to get free of the falling machine, the employee's legs were pinned by the top bar of the cage. The employee was hospitalized and his left leg was amputated. He also sustained fractures to a hand and finger.
An employee was walking into the motor control center (MCC) room when his right ring finger was caught in the hinge of a doorway. He sustained an open phalanx fracture, which resulted in a partial amputation above the first knuckle.
An employee was changing the spacing on a telehandler's forks. A fork slipped, and the employee's left index finger was caught between it and the mast. The fingertip was medically amputated at the first knuckle.
An employee was pulling down a broken skid with a forklift. When the employee backed up the forklift to get the forks out of the skid he pulled down, he contacted the forks of another parked forklift, fracturing both of his legs. He was hospitalized.
An employee was carrying cups back to the kitchen when her foot got caught on a cart and she fell face-first. During the fall, a piece of glass from a cup cut the inside of her mouth, severing an artery. She also sustained a laceration on her lower lip. The employee was hospitalized.