United Rentals Trench Safety

An employee was helping load a modular 10-by-10 trench box into a truck. As he tried to straighten the box so it could be loaded, the truck backed up. He suffered a partial fingertip amputation.

An employee was using a sledge hammer when his back began to spasm. Unable to walk, he was hospitalized, suffering from a back sprain.

An employee was drying and finishing vehicles when a vehicle door closed on their left middle fingertip and amputated it.

An employee was climbing down from a tractor trailer bed when they lost their footing and grabbed onto the roll-up door to stop the fall. The roll-up door then fell onto the employee's hand, resulting in a hand fracture that required surgery.

An employee was attempting to remove a tarp from a flatbed trailer when the trailer handle struck the employee in the chest, resulting in two broken ribs and a punctured lung.

An employee was near a backhoe while the operator was getting a broom. The broom handle struck the lever that actuates the swing of the backhoe bucket. The bucket then struck the injured employee, pinning him to the outrigger. The employee suffered crush injuries to the chest.

The injured employee was being trained on loading trucks in the load out bay. The injured employee and his supervisor climbed the stairs that run parallel to the truck and trailer, walked to the upper platform used for observation and sample taking, and saw that the lid of the grain trailer was closed. The employees began working to open the lid which appeared to be stuck due to cold weather. The injured employee pulled on one of the pivot arms that connect the lid to the main body of the trailer. As the lid began to open, the employee s right hand slipped down on the pivot arm and his index finger was caught between the pivot arm and the base of the pivot arm. The employee s right index finger was fractured and three nerves were severed. The employee was hospitalized.

An excavator bucket was being removed. An employee was pulling a snap ring to remove a pin and lost his grip. The high-tension snap ring recoiled and his left middle fingertip was amputated by the snap ring.

An employee was walking between service bays. He came into contact with a trailer hitch, which was sticking out of the back of a lawn mower, and fell to the concrete floor. He landed on his right side and suffered a broken hip.

An employee was taking a scissor lift off a flatbed trailer. While using the remote operator controls and walking alongside the lift, the wheel of the lift turned in the wrong direction, causing it to strike the employee and roll over his left ankle. The employee was hospitalized with two broken bones in his ankle.

An employee was working on an excavator's tracks. He was swinging a sledgehammer to finish pushing a metal tractor pin into the track links. A hammer-blow caused a piece of the pin to fly off, ricochet, and embed itself in his buttock. He was hospitalized, requiring surgery.

An employee was picking up crane pads to put onto their trailer. Their finger got pinched between pads, resulting in an amputation involving the loss of skin.

An employee was closing a door when the door closed on their right index finger, resulting in a fingertip amputation.

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.