Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Sunbelt Rentals, 19068 Coastal Highway, REHOBOTH BEACH, DELAWARE 19971
on — Crushing injuries, affecting the leg(s), unspecified.
Final narrative
On June 8, 2023, an employee was working on a skid steer when they suffered a crush injury to their leg that required hospitalization and surgery.
HospitalizedLeg(s), unspecifiedSkid steer loaders, mini loaders
An employee was loading a machine onto a trailer deck in the parking lot of the facility. The tilting deck returned to its horizontal position, causing the employee step backward and catch his right foot in the channel beam on the front of the trailer bed. The employee sustained injuries to his right foot, ankle, and right forearm.
An employee was in a scissor lift, loading it onto a trailer bed. The scissor lift skidded and went down the side of the trailer bed; the employee was ejected onto a paved parking lot. The employee suffered a scraped elbow and a broken left femur near the hip socket.
On September 25, 2023, an employee was working in the body department installing doors, hoods, and tailgates. The employee finished their shift and was hospitalized later that evening for a back injury.
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.
A flagger was directing traffic flow in a highway work zone. They were standing approximately 1.5 feet behind the shoulder's demarcating line, next to and slightly behind a traffic drum. As they were directing traffic into and out of the driveway of a parking lot, a car attempted to get around a truck and struck the traffic drum, which subsequently struck the employee, who was thrown 15 feet and landed on top of concrete aggregate. The employee suffered pelvic and rib fractures, T10 and L3 vertebra fractures, and internal bleeding.
An employee was troubleshooting a power washer in the field. Because there might have been water in its fuel, he brought it back to the shop and drained about a gallon of fuel from the tank into a plastic container. Some of the fuel spilled onto the floor and ignited. The employee was stomping out the fire when he lost his balance and tripped into a stool, which caused the plastic container to spill more fuel onto the fire. The employee's pants and shirt caught on fire, and he fell, abrading his knee while trying to get through the flames. As well as the knee abrasion, he suffered burns to the left leg and left lower quadrant of the torso. He was hospitalized.
An employee was backing up a tram (towing powered industrial equipment) to connect it to a trash bin. The employee's left forearm/wrist was caught and crushed between the tram and the bin. The employee was hospitalized.
An employee went to lift a carton and tripped on a different carton that was on the floor. She fell on the floor in the backroom and sustained a fractured right hip, and abrasions to her arm and knee. The employee was hospitalized and required surgery.