Heartland Produce Company

An employee was transporting a patient to their residence. The employee bent down to grab a stretcher and felt a pop in their back. The employee sustained a herniation of their L4-L5 disc.

On November 18, 2023, at approximately 8:30 a.m., an employee was loading products onto a delivery truck. The employee lost footing and sustained a torn hamstring and a hematoma with nerve damage to his foot/leg.

An employee was carrying a pipe when it slipped from their hand. As they reached to grab it while it was falling, they felt a muscle pull. The employee was hospitalized for an abdominal hernia.

On August 21, 2023, an employee was reaching for product on the shelf in the cooler when their back gave out. The employee was hospitalized for an exacerbation of bulging disks.

An employee was vacuuming the inside of a used car when they sustained a lower back strain during the repetitive work, requiring hospitalization.

An employee was on the floor of an aisle wrapping a pallet when an electric pallet jack struck him, resulting in fractured ankles.

An employee was removing a rug entangled in the rear tire of a powered industrial truck (PIT). The PIT was raised and supported by a fork truck jack. The PIT shifted/fell and struck the employee's hand. The employee's index fingertip was amputated and the employee was hospitalized.

On May 14, 2025, at approximately 6:30 AM, a driver was making a delivery at a customer s site when their hand was crushed in a roll-up door. The employee's finger was fractured in three locations and required surgical amputation.

An employee was operating a tractor and utilizing a 2.5-foot kinetic rope and a 1-inch soft shackle to pull another tractor that was stuck in the mud. An additional 30-foot kinetic rope with a soft shackle was hooked up to provide distance from the soft soil. While pulling, the loop end of the terminal shackle on the stuck tractor frayed and released the rope, causing it to recoil back at the pulling tractor. The rope(s) struck the back of the pull tractor, broke the rear window, and struck the employee. The employee was pushed forward into the steering wheel and sustained severe lacerations to the head and a collapsed lung.

An employee was staging products in the back of their box truck to be unloaded. He slipped on a surface in the truck that was wet from rain, and fell out of the back of the truck onto the concrete ground. The employee was hospitalized with a fractured left humerus and required surgery.

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.