Caught in running equipment or machinery during regular operation · Amputations
At a glance
Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Union Electric Steel Corporation, 31 Union Electric Road, BURGETTSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA 15021
on — Amputations, affecting the finger(s), fingernail(s), n.e.c..
Final narrative
An employee was preparing to lift a 25,000-pound forging with an overhead crane using a spreader bar and a set of chains. The chains on one side of the forging snagged on set downs and would not slide into position. The employee used his right hand to position the chains to the center of the load when the crane began to lift the forging. The employee's right middle finger was caught between the chain and the forging, resulting in amputation to the first knuckle.
On March 28, 2025, an employee was assembling metal grated shelving when they dropped the shelving on their right middle finger. The finger was pinned between the grating and the shelving support structure. The distal phalanx was medically amputated.
On 9/09/2023, an employee was adjusting the packing cuts on the press for the center ram. The center brass guide fell out of the ram and crushed the packing, which crushed the employee's fingers. The employee's left middle fingertip was amputated.
An employee was heating up an area on a cast work roll with a torch. Grease was sealed in a compartment on the work roll. When the compartment was heated, the employee was splashed with heated grease, suffering second degree burns on his neck, chest, and forearms.
An employee was sharpening peeler blades when their shirt was caught in the grinding wheel. The employee sustained tendon damage and a crushed right hand.
An employee was preparing to cut lumber on a panel saw when the clamp engaged and caught the employee's left middle finger, resulting in a fingertip amputation.
More severe injuries in this industry (NAICS 331210)
An employee was cutting wooden boards using a table saw when the glove on his left hand was caught by the blade, resulting in a partial fingertip amputation.
An employee was placing a board on top of a bundle of steel tubing. A crane was moving a bundle of steel that struck the employee and caught them against another bundle of steel tubing. The employee sustained a crushing injury and hematoma to the right upper leg.
A crane was hoisting a pipe. An employee was adjusting twisted lifting chains on the end of the pipe when the pipe was raised, causing the employee's hands to be caught between the chains and the pipe. The employee suffered injuries to the left index finger, left ring finger, right ring finger, and right index finger; the right index fingertip was amputated without bone loss.
During a routine inspection, an employee placed their hand on a pipe to check a weld. The pipe clamp activated, closed on the pipe, and trapped the employee's right middle finger, resulting in a partial amputation and fracture to the fingertip as well as a laceration to the ring finger.
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.