Southwire Company

An employee was checking the metering pin alignment when his right index finger was caught between the caster wheel and the tension wheel resulting in a partial amputation.

On April 25, 2023, at approximately 6:20 p.m., the injured employee was observing his co-workers as they used a chain to the lift the metal lid from a launder machine (a piece of equipment that holds and processes copper). The chain shifted, causing the lid to shift. Copper debris fell off the lid, striking the injured employee and fracturing the right side of their jaw.

An employee had connected two pieces of large wire together to provide a continuous feed of wire into a plastic extruder. The feed wire comes into the process on large metal reels; the employee was taking up the slack using a reel pay-off machine. As the wire slack was taken up on the reel, the wire swept the employee off his feet. The employee landed on his left shoulder and the left side of his head. He was hospitalized, suffering a subarachnoid and subdural hematoma as well as a shoulder injury.

An employee was loading up a payoff machine when the employee's left index finger was caught between the reel and the drive arm of the payoff, resulting in an amputation of the distal phalanges on the left index finger.

While operating the strander machine in normal operating mode, an employee's clothes became entangled in the rotating parts of the machine. The employee was dragged into the machine, suffering head lacerations and breaking the right and left femur, right tibia and fibula, and four ribs.

An employee was operating a forklift and unloading a truck. After the truck was unloaded, the employee got off the forklift and proceeded to adjust the dock plate with a hook tool. The dock plate slipped and the employee went to adjust the plate with their hand when their left middle finger got caught. Their finger was amputated above the first joint.

An employee was rotating a carbide granulator blade when his finger was caught between the blade and a stationary part of the machine. The employee's right middle finger was partially amputated and they suffered an avulsion to the right ring fingertip.

An employee was using a CNC metal lathe machine in manual mode to check that the thread blocking tool made contact with the jaws. As the employee was manually spinning the spindle, his index fingertip was crushed between the spindle's jaws and the grooving insert, resulting in a fingertip amputation.

During a material handling operation, an employee's fingertip was caught under an air conditioning unit as the unit was lowered onto a cart. The employee's fingertip was amputated.

An employee was removing a bolt from a tractor hub when their right index finger was caught between the hub and the frame. The employee's fingertip was crushed and the employee was hospitalized.

An employee was loading an empty reel on the west reel take-up when they noticed that the wire lying on the east reel take-up had over-accumulated on one side of the reel, making it uneven. The employee stopped the east take-up machine and released tension on the wire to correct the lay. As the employee engaged a mechanical rotation function to take up the wire slack, their right little finger was crushed between two separate wire strands on the reel under tension, resulting in a fingertip amputation. The machine was guarded at the time of the incident.

An employee was operating an overhead crane to transport a bundle of copper tubing. He went to lower the load as he was approaching a rack, but the suspended bundle of tubing suddenly jerked in the other direction. The bundle struck a nearby tool cabinet, and the cabinet tipped over. The employee went to prevent it from falling. However, the cabinet still fell over, striking his right arm and briefly pinning it against another object. The employee suffered a fractured right forearm that required hospitalization.

An employee was working to manually clear copper tubes from the turnover rack due to a faulty sensor. As he used his right hand to remove a finished tube from the turnover rack, another tube pushed through the feed line and struck his gloved right ring fingertip. The sharp edge of the copper tube caused a soft tissue amputation to the bottom side of the fingertip.

An employee was cleaning slag from a casting mold at a furnace. The molten copper dropped out of the mold too quickly, reacted with the mold cooling water, and blew out. The molten metal struck his right foot, hand, and torso, causing first-, second-, and third-degree burns.

An employee was working with a drill press when his right glove was caught and pulled into the drill bit. The employee's little fingertip was partially amputated.

After cutting a slab of beef short ribs, an employee turned to grab the pieces he had cut and his right hand contacted the saw blade. The employee sustained an amputation to his right index finger.

An employee was unloading a carpet pad from a truck when they fell from the truck dock to the concrete below, resulting in five fractured ribs and an injury to their left lung.

An employee was inspecting flares processes. The employee received burns to the front side of the body, face and arm from the flares.

An employee was removing plastic material from a production line when the machine cycled and amputated his left index, ring, and little fingers.

An employee was walking up a walkway to enter a building through the back entrance when she tripped over the lip of the cement ramp. The employee fell and sustained a fractured right hip.