Piston Automotive Belvidere, Inc.

An employee was walking back to her workstation. A forklift reversed a short distance, then completed a U-turn and struck her, running over her lower extremities. She was hospitalized with a broken ankle.

An employee was training on a jockey truck. Upon stepping out of the truck, the employee was struck by a rubber tire gantry crane, resulting in amputations of the right leg above the knee and left leg below the knee.

An employee was standing at the rear of a double pallet jack. Another double jack approached, and the employee's lower leg was caught between the two pieces of equipment. He suffered a broken tibia and fibula.

An employee was unloading large material bags on a loading dock. A forklift tine pinned the employee's foot against a pallet, causing the employee to fall and suffer a broken ankle.

An employee was pushing a container when they were struck by a forklift. The employee sustained a left leg fracture.

An employee was pushing automotive suspension material using a material rack. The material started to shift and caught the employee's right little finger, crushing it. The employee suffered an amputation to the finger. The finger was re-attached.

An employee was assembling the gearbox of a lower unit (of a boat motor). They used a handheld electric drill to power the lower unit's gears and inspect the assembly. A gear was out of tolerance, so the employee placed sandpaper in the gearbox to remove any burrs or other material. The employee activated the drill and their left middle finger contacted a nip point between the gears in the unit, resulting in a fingertip amputation.

An employee was reaching for a label and stepped onto a metal piece along rollers and slipped. His leg went down into a gap between the machines and contacted the metal in the gap between the rollers. The employee was hospitalized with the avulsion of skin on his left shin between the ankle and knee, as well as injuries to muscle and ligament.

On June 10, 2025, an employee was driving a forklift west when they were struck by another forklift driving south. The suffered a puncture wound on the right calf.

An employee had just moved a large coil of steel next to another coil on a rack using an overhead crane. They unhooked one side of the sling and held onto it with their right middle finger. As they were raising the crane back up, the sling hung up under the coil, building tension; once it released, it quickly jerked the other side of the sling through the coils along with the last joint of the employee's right middle finger. The finger was amputated to that joint.

An employee fell while moving a water canister, resulting in fractures to four fingers on her right hand.

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 mixing sauce using a sauce barrel mixer when his left little finger was amputated.

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.

A temporary employee was carrying a nail gun through the warehouse when it hit his leg, activated, and fired a nail into the leg.