Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Suburban Propane LP, 312 Crescent Lake Road, SWIFTWATER, PENNSYLVANIA 18370
on — Concussions, affecting the brain.
Final narrative
An employee slipped and fell on ice while delivering propane to a customer's home. The employee suffered a concussion and was hospitalized.
An employee was delivering propane to a customer when the tank released propane gas into his face. As well as propane inhalation, he suffered minor facial burns and contusions where the tank cap struck his face.
A trainee employee was connecting a propane hose to a cylinder tank when his hand hit the handle to open the valve. The propane hose came loose and the employee's jacket was soaked with the propane. The employee received propane burns on his left leg and ankle, his right wrist, and abdominal area.
An employee fell off a truck while unloading tanks. The employee suffered a skull fracture, a fractured left elbow, and brain bleeding on the left side.
An employee was servicing a customer's propane tank at the customer's residence. The employee reached down to pick up a tool and was bitten by a copperhead snake. The employee received anti-venom and had an adverse reaction to the anti-venom, requiring hospitalization.
An employee was working in the forest flagging an area to be harvested. He took a step and his foot slipped on a stick hidden under the leaves, causing him to fall to the ground. He landed on his right foot/lower leg resulting in a fractured tibia.
An employee was inspecting an apartment to ensure it was ready for a new resident to move in. The carpet in the apartment had been recently cleaned and was still wet. As the employee went from the carpet to the tiled floor of the bathroom, they slipped and fell, resulting in a torn left hamstring.
An employee was delivering a letter along a rural carrier route when she stepped on an ice-covered snow drift, slipped, and fell to the ground. The employee sustained a right hip fracture that required surgery.
More severe injuries in this industry (NAICS 454310)
An employee was connecting a hose to fill a propane cylinder. The flow of propane was activated when the filler nozzle was partially connected to the cylinder. The nozzle detached from the cylinder valve, causing expanding liquid propane to release through the nozzle. This caused the employee to lose his balance, spin, become entangled in the hose, and fall. He struck his head on the ground and suffered fractures to the temple and cheekbones, a laceration on the forehead, and a brain bleed. The employee was hospitalized.
An employee was filling a motor fuel cylinder from a bobtail. When he opened the handle on the fill nozzle it popped off the filler valve and pushed him back into a rack where he struck his head on a cylinder cage. He sustained a laceration to the back left side of his head. While working to wrestle the hose to the ground, he sustained burns from liquid propane on the right side of his chest and right arm, and sustained minor burns on the left side.
An employee had been refueling empty propane tanks at a site. He drove back to the bulk plant facility and began to feel ill. The employee sustained dehydration due to heat.
An employee was pumping liquid propane from a propane delivery truck to a storage tank. After the transfer was completed, the employee closed the valves and disconnected the transfer hose. During the transfer, the liquid propane auto-refrigerated the riser pipe of the storage tank and that delayed the vaporization of the propane. Upon reaching a higher temperature, liquified propane began rapidly expanding. Liquid propane then discharged from the pipe and contacted the employee, causing cold burns. The employee was hospitalized for second-degree burns to their torso and arms.
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.