Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Penn Line Tree Service, Inc., 154 Valley Lane, CONNELLSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA 15425
on — Fractures , affecting the Back thoracic region.
Final narrative
An employee and his crew were removing a tree at a residence. He walked into the drop zone just as a bucket operator cut a branch. The branch struck the employee between the shoulder blades, knocking him to the ground. The employee suffered a fracture to a singular transverse process bone in the thoracic area of his back.
Hospitalized Back thoracic region Limbs, branches unattached
More severe injuries at Penn Line Tree Service, Inc.
An employee was in an aerial lift to prune vegetation with a chainsaw when the chainsaw kicked back and struck the right side of his face, resulting in a laceration between his chin and cheek.
A cherry tree was being felled. It had been roped off and attached to a rope puller (come-along). A dead limb broke off the tree and struck the rope, which caused the rope puller to strike the employee operating it in the mouth. The employee suffered a broken jaw and a laceration to the neck.
An employee was cutting a cherry tree. As the tree fell it became stuck on adjacent hickory and maple trees. The employee began working to remove the hickory tree to dislodge the cherry tree and his saw became stuck in the hinge wood. He was removing the saw when the hickory tree fell on his knee and pinned him to the ground. The employee sustained a dislocation.
An employee was holding a branch against a log on the ground to make a wedge while another employee was using a chainsaw to cut the wedge. The saw slipped and struck the employee holding the branch, resulting in a laceration to the right wrist.
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 terminating cables in a junction box. A loose ground wire came into contact with the bushing, causing a flash that burned the right side of the employee's face and his right hand.
An employee was using a bucket truck hoist to raise secondary aerial wiring. The wire made contact with the primary wire, causing an arc flash. The employee suffered burns to both hands and was hospitalized.
An employee was terminating conductors to buss bars inside the secondary compartment of a single-phase transformer. An arc flash occurred, causing burns to the soft tissue of the employee's face.
An employee was securing the claw of a grapple truck to the truck bed. His left little finger was caught between the tie down strap and the rub rail of the truck, resulting in partial amputation of the 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.