Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Rayonier Performance Fibers, LLC, 4474 Savannah Highway, JESUP, GEORGIA 31545
on — Fractures , affecting the Other multiple ear(s), facial locations.
Final narrative
An employee was changing the socks of a pressure filter on a white liquor filter. The metal washer tool the employee was using to remove the socks came loose from the crane and struck their face causing a fractured orbital bone and fractures to other smaller bones in their face.
Hospitalized Other multiple ear(s), facial locations Cleaning handtools unspecified
More severe injuries at Rayonier Performance Fibers, LLC
An employee was threading up a sheet of pulp on the wrap station when their glove became caught and was pulled into the feed rollers. The right second and third fingertips were amputated.
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 loading black liquor into a tanker truck using a swivel arm. The arm caught and pinched his right middle finger as it moved, resulting in a partial amputation to the first knuckle.
An employee was visually inspecting the drive line for a conveyor. There was an explosion in the conveyor, and the employee suffered second- and third-degree burns to both forearms.
An employee was driving forklift with a load when the forklift hit a guardrail and the employee fell to the ground, resulting in a broken elbow, broken shoulder, and lacerations.
An employee was putting a chain back on a sprocket. The gearbox and sprocket contained two drive chains connected to the lowerator (vertical conveyor) and counterweight assembly. The employee received an alarm indicating that one of the chains had gone slack. While the employee was putting the chain back on the drive sprocket with tongue and groove pliers, the weight of the chain and counterweight fell back in place on the sprocket, pulling the employee's left hand into a pinch point. The employee's ring fingertip was amputated up to the fingernail.
An employee was helping to lift the grating from a floor draining system when the grating slipped and landed on his hand, resulting in the amputation of his right middle finger at the first joint.
During a workshop meeting in a hotel, an employee heard a drilling noise, so he walked outside to see what it was. An explosion occurred (possible gas line) and his face, ear, and hair were burned. He also fell and sustained a pelvic fracture.
An employee was using a tool to remove a rag from a roll on the tube mill. The roll pulled the tool and the employee's right hand into the roll, resulting in a partial amputation of the little finger and a fracture to the index finger.