Caught in running equipment or machinery during maintenance, cleaning · Amputations
At a glance
Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Gates Corporation, 630 US Highway 150 E, GALESBURG, ILLINOIS 61401
on — Amputations, affecting the fingertip(s).
Final narrative
An employee was troubleshooting a coiler machine when a damaged pneumatic piston actuated and amputated the employee's right middle fingertip.
HospitalizedAmputationFingertip(s)Material and personnel handling machinery, n.e.c.
Two maintenance technicians were changing out drive belts on the south end of the vulcanizing vessel. To check the proper function of the drive belts, the technicians manually cycled the cars into and then out of the vessel. One technician was manually cycling the vessel back out and the injured technician was inspecting the belts and checking the tension. The injured technician's right index finger was pinched between the belt and the pulley, resulting in an amputation of the distal phalanx.
An employee was cleaning a mandrel shaft with an emery cloth when their glove became caught on the rotating shaft. Their right hand was pulled in with the glove and their thumb was amputated.
On February 20, 2024, at approximately 6:30 a.m., an employee was unjamming rubber that had become stuck in a machine. When the machine started, the flapper moved, striking and compressing the employee. The employee was hospitalized for three fractured ribs, a partially collapsed lung, and a puncture wound in the middle of their back.
An employee was operating a hose/bender machine. He was reaching to adjust a piece of hose and got caught in a pinch point, sustaining an amputation to his finger.
On 8/9/2023, an employee was pressure washing a mandrel shell when the pressurized mixture lacerated their right hand near the thumb. The employee was hospitalized.
Two employees were repairing the hydraulic engagement pins on a rented front-end wheel loader. The machine controls were activated to move the attachment pins and an employee's finger was caught between the pins and the bushings. Their right index finger was partially amputated.
An employee was cleaning the conveyor on a piece of equipment when they slipped and their right hand was pulled into the chain sprocket. The employee's fifth fingertip was amputated.
An employee was throwing blankets onto a blanket folding and stacking machine. A blanket got stuck in the machine and she attempted to remove it when the machine contacted her right little finger, resulting in a fingertip amputation.
More severe injuries in this industry (NAICS 326220)
An employee was preparing to cut rubber stock on a pneumatic cutting machine when their middle and ring fingertips were amputated by the cutting blade.
At about 12:25 a.m. on September 3, 2025, an employee was troubleshooting a malfunction involving a slitter whose arbor was not rotating as expected. The employee was observing the slitter's operations when the arbor completed its cycle and the employee's right index finger was drawn into the slitter's 4-inch, non-rotating cutting blade. The fingertip was amputated.
An employee was operating a rolling rope machine. Tooling fell out of the machine and landed on the employee's foot, breaking bones. The machine was not guarded at the time.
An employee was operating a machine when hot air and water was released. The employee sustained burns to the neck, back, buttocks and leg on the right side.
An employee was changing a die in a press when the die slipped and crushed the employee's left index finger. The employee sustained an open facture of the tuft of the left distal phalanx and a partial amputation.
An employee was driving a boom lift (in the lowered position) in an exterior dock area. The lift s left wheels rolled onto base plates that covered a 3-foot-deep sump pit. The base plates failed, and one side of the lift dropped. The employee's left leg was caught under the lift basket, and he suffered a fracture to the lower leg including the ankle.