Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Personal Touch By J R Rivas, Inc., 26300 - 26550 State Highway 17, GILBERTOWN, ALABAMA 36908
on — Fractures , affecting the Ankle(s) and leg(s) unspecified.
Final narrative
An employee and a co-worker were removing a dead pine tree. The employee was standing outside the fall zone of the tree while removing slack from the rope tied around the tree and assisting in pulling the tree down. As the co-worker was cutting the tree, it snapped sideways and struck a living sweet gum tree, which subsequently fell and struck the employee. The employee suffered a broken ankle and leg.
Hospitalized Ankle(s) and leg(s) unspecified Trees
More severe injuries at Personal Touch By J R Rivas, Inc.
On February 12, 2025, an employee was installing blocking in an attic space to repair a sagging sheetrock ceiling. The employee misstepped and fell through the sheetrock 10 feet and 5 inches to the ground below. The employee landed on his head and was hospitalized with a fractured skull and brain bleeding.
An employee was retrieving a rake near a loader truck. The truck's outrigger came down on top of his right foot, causing broken toes and soft tissue damage.
A crew was felling a tree on a transmission power line. When the last cut was made, the tree came off the stump, crashing to the ground. Due to the terrain, it bounced and came straight back, striking an employee in the left leg. He suffered a compound fracture between the knee and the ankle.
An employee was removing an oak tree limb from a powerline. After cutting a considerate amount of brush off the limb, he freed the powerline. The tree limb became disconnected and fell to the ground, where it bounced and hit his left leg below the knee, breaking his tibia and requiring surgery.
The injured employee was assisting five other employees with bracing a wall panel that was being stood up. Another employee slipped on frost on the floor surface. The employees went to evacuate the area in anticipation of the wall panel falling over. The injured employee went to jump through a window opening within the wall panel and their lower half was crushed by the falling wall panel. The employee sustained a fractured pelvis.
An employee was helping to move a 1,300-pound coil on a cart. The steel caster hit a crack in the concrete, the weld holding the caster onto the cart broke, and the coil and cart tipped over onto the employee. He was hospitalized with a laceration on his forehead and a pelvic fracture on his right side.
An employee was attempting to lift a steel beam from a horizontal, stacked position to a vertical position using a crane. They had placed two hooks on the east side of the beam on the flange. As the employee was hoisting the crane, the beam began to shift and pulled the employee forward onto the stack. When the material shifted, the hooks released and the material fell, pinning the employee between the two beams. The employee was hospitalized with soft tissue contusions on their proximal right thigh and interior left thigh.
An employee was moving a tensile strength test device with a dolly. The device fell from the dolly onto the employee's right leg, causing a compound fracture.
An employee was directing trucks as they entered and left a highway work zone. A vehicle struck them, resulting in multiple fractures and other injuries. The employee was hospitalized.
An employee was assisting the crew with patching and restoring a roadway after the installation of a sewer line. He was helping place and level the blacktop/backfill material over the trench area to bring the road surface back to proper grade. The employee was walking between a forward-moving dump truck and a dirt pile when his right foot was run over by the truck s wheel, causing him to fall. The employee sustained injury to his foot.
An employee was operating a skid steer with a bucket attachment at a demolition site. While driving it to the rear of the property to park it, the employee came into contact with a live electrical transformer unit that was located outside of the facility. The employee sustained electrical burns on his hands extending up to his elbows and a fractured ankle.
An employee was installing a door on a semi-trailer. They were using a forklift to lift the door to the height of the trailer when the door became jammed between the forklift mast and the hinge on the trailer. When the employee went to dislodge the door from the mast, the door fell and crushed their foot. Their big toe was amputated. The employee was hospitalized and their big toe was surgically reattached. The employee's foot and other toes also required surgery.
An employee was traveling down the maintenance aisle of a warehouse on a single-pallet front rider jack. The jack malfunctioned, causing the brakes to apply; the employee fell forward onto the concrete warehouse floor. The employee suffered an injury to the left leg and was hospitalized, requiring surgery.
An employee was operating a metal roller machine to roll a small piece of metal. The employee's right index finger became caught between the metal and the machine, and the fingertip was amputated.
An employee was directing a truck driver to a dump site when the truck's peanut trailer slipped off the kingpin. As the trailer fell, a ladder attached to it lacerated the employee's ear. The employee was hospitalized.
An employee was unloading a forklift from a trailer to the ground. The employee was climbing down the ladder of the trailer when their foot slipped through one of the rungs, causing them to fall backward onto the forklift forks. The employee was hospitalized for fractured ribs.