Ozark Empire Distributors

An employee was standing on top of a 7-foot-tall machine, cleaning it. He fell off the edge and landed on the ground, suffering two fractured vertebrae in his neck, a fractured left radius and left wrist, and head lacerations.

An employee was bagging bread at a bagger machine when it became jammed. As she attempted to unjam the machine, another employee activated the machine, which then amputated an eighth of an inch of her left index fingertip. The machine was not locked out at the time of the incident.

Employee's right ring finger was amputated after it came in contact with the blade on a bread divider. During a jam, a photo electric eye is supposed to shut the machine down. The photo electric eye malfunctioned as the employee reached into the machine resulting in the ring finger amputation.

An employee was using a crane. The hook slipped and a fitting fell onto a finger on the employee's left hand causing a fracture and laceration.

An employee was transporting an 800-pound die on a cart from the tool room. The employee was pulling the cart when it struck a metal plate on the floor. This caused the cart to tip forward and the die to slide off the cart. The die struck the employee's left foot and their second toe was amputated.

An employee was using a forklift to load pallets of product on a trailer. He exited the forklift to adjust a pallet by hand. The pallet fell on him, resulting in an injury to the left leg.

An employee was lifting a 500-pound steel counterweight off a pallet using a magnetic hold jib crane. The counterweight detached from the crane and the employee sustained a left foot/toe fracture that required surgery.

An employee was using a pipe wrench to turn a 42-foot-long steel pipe on jack stands to weld the bottom portion. The pipe fell off the stands, striking the injured employee on his left shin. The employee sustained a left leg fracture at the shin area as well as a tibia fracture that required surgery.

An employee (who had recently walked through water accumulated on the floor) slipped and fell to the floor. The employee suffered a broken right wrist and right elbow and was hospitalized, requiring surgery.

An employee was performing maintenance on a production line, requiring a testing and positioning phase for the whipped cream dispensers. The employee was positioning the dispensers using wrenches when one of the sensors was triggered by the pie pans coming down the line. The depositor heads lowered and pinched the employee's left ring finger, resulting in an amputated fingertip. The whipped cream dispensers were not guarded at the time and the line was not locked out/tagged out.

During a line changeover, an employee was rinsing a depositor with water. The employee was working to remove a piece of chocolate, stuck in the machine's roller, when the roller's moving parts caught his middle finger. He suffered an amputation to the fingertip with bone loss.

An employee was emptying a trash can into a dumpster. He tripped while turning around, fell over a rail onto the concrete floor, and broke bones in his back and wrist.

During a changeover, an employee was wiping down the dough chunker machine and the chunker closed on his left hand. The employee sustained crushing/laceration injuries, requiring hospitalization and surgery.

An employee was operating an ironworker (steel punching/shearing) machine. A piece of the tooling broke off and struck the employee's neck; a fragment was lodged in his neck. The employee was hospitalized and required surgery.

On October 25, 2025, an employee was stringing up a new reel of tire tread on a machine. The employee pulled a 6-inch tail and proceeded to spool up the liner. As the machine was jogged to begin the liner wrapping process, the liner caught the employee's glove and pulled their right arm into the liner, causing a fracture to the arm.

An employee was doing a cable change on top of an electric overhead traveling (EOT) crane. They were positioned between the cable drum and the drive shaft. While rotating the cable drum, the employee reached for the new cable that was to be installed. The grease fitting on the drive shaft caught their fall harness and pulled them underneath the drive shaft. The employee was pinned between the drive shaft and two pieces of angle steel, resulting in a fracture to their left hip.

An employee was helping two other employees to push a pallet of tile on a loading dock. He suffered a broken fibula and was hospitalized.

On October 5, 2025, an employee was pulling a pressure washer hose when it it disconnected from the cooker. The employee was struck by jets of high-pressure water, resulting in lacerations to their left thigh requiring surgery. The employee was hospitalized.