Struck by running powered equipment during maintenance, cleaning, testing · Amputations involving bone loss
At a glance
Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Prairie Farms Dairy, 4001 U.S. Highway 190, HAMMOND, LOUISIANA 70401
on — Amputations involving bone loss, affecting the Other finger(s) n.e.c..
Final narrative
An employee was dislodging a jammed bottle in the blow mold machine when they sustained amputations of their index and middle fingers.
HospitalizedAmputation Other finger(s) n.e.c. Extruding, injecting, forming, molding machinery n.e.c.
An employee was unloading product from a trailer onto a scissor lift. They stepped backward and fell approximately 5 feet from the scissor lift to the concrete floor, sustaining six broken ribs and a punctured lung.
An employee was standing near his forklift while in a charging area when a co-worker's forklift struck his forklift, causing the employee to become pinned between his forklift and the wall. The employee suffered a broken left kneecap.
An employee was backing out of a delivery truck when they slipped on the step. Their foot went through the step as they fell to the ground. The employee sustained a broken left femur, skinned his left shin, and struck his head on the ground.
An employee was loading pallets on a trailer at the dock. The employee entered a trailer on a rider jack, dropped their load, and began moving backward to exit the trailer. The rider jack impacted the dock plate while it was in an upward position and the employee was thrown into the dock plate, resulting in a compound fracture of their right tibia that required surgery.
An employee was pulling jammed cartons off a track. The employee's middle finger got caught in a pinch point of a machine where the cartons out-feed, resulting in a partial amputation of the right middle finger.
A temporary employee turned off a planer machine, opened the housing, and began clearing a jam. The machine's spinning blade caught his right hand and degloved the index finger.
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.
A production sanitation employee was pre-rinsing an incline conveyor and noticed cheese stuck between the belt idler. The employee went to remove the cheese and their glove got caught and pulled their left forearm into the conveyor. The employee's arm was fractured. The machine was not locked out/tagged out at the time.
More severe injuries in this industry (NAICS 112120)
Employees were stripping parts off an old pivot. An employee was standing on the ground, helping others make sure that the parts all came off the pivot. The pivot span was elevated when the base beam broke free on one side. This shifted the weight of the span, causing it to roll off the loader on its side. When the span came down, the support rod caught the employee's back as he went to turn and run away from it. It pushed him to the ground. He suffered a back fracture, along with a broken bone in his foot, and was hospitalized.
An employee was working in a holding pen, using a crowd gate to herd cows into milking stalls. She was moving to beat the crowd gate to a manhole, but the gate moved and struck the employee. The employee was hospitalized with two fractured processes in her lower vertebrae.
Three maintenance employees were working on chemical lines feeding into a large above ground wastewater treatment tank. Sodium hydroxide and sulfuric acid reacted in a floor drain and the chemicals sprayed onto the three employees. One employee was taken to the hospital for burns to his eyes.
An employee was removing a pin from a metal gate to let cows out of a parlor. The gate moved and his left middle finger was caught in the pin hole. The employee's finger was partially amputated.
A driver was exiting his vehicle outside the plant gate when his foot slipped on the top step of the truck. He fell to the ground, landed on his left hip and elbow. The employee was hospitalized with a fractured hip/femur.
A security employee was responding to an urgent call from staff regarding a violent patient. The employee tripped and fell on the floor outside of the stairwell. The employee sustained a closed head injury, contusion of the cerebrum without loss of consciousness, and a closed fracture of the distal end of the right radius.
A temporary employee was testing an electrical starter motor. He was placing tape on the starter while the breaker was not engaged, but the starter sent an arc flash that burned his hands and stomach.
An employee was walking on a sidewalk and stubbed his toe on an elevated portion of concrete, causing him to trip and fall. The employee's right knee was dislocated.