Charter Steel Company

On June 30, 2025, at about 8:45 p.m., an employee started a new coil on a draw machine. While operating the machine, a steel ring fell from the top of the coil and became tangled on the base of the payoff s coil upender. To untangle the ring, the employee grabbed the ring with both hands and their right hand was pinched between the ring and the base of the coil upender, resulting in a partial amputation of the right little fingertip and lacerations to the right middle finger.

On June 27, 2025, around 2:00 a.m., a Charter Steel mechanical maintenance technician was changing the northeast wheel on the east outside billet yard crane. While the crane was locked out and lifted with a portable hydraulic device, the tech rotated the drive wheel by hand. The lifting device failed, causing the crane to fall and crush the employee s left-hand fingers against the crane wheel. This resulted in partial amputation of the middle and ring fingertips (through the nail with no bone loss) and a laceration with tendon involvement to the index finger.

An employee was placing elbow spacers between 4-inch by 4-inch, 40-foot-long billets. The tips of the employee's left pinky and ring fingers were crushed between an elbow and a billet, causing fingertip amputations.

An employee was hoisting a load of steel billets with a crane when the employee's right index and middle fingertips were pinched between the steel billets and the chain sling.

An employee was cleaning a bolt on a piece of equipment when a coworker who was tightening a bolt on the same piece of equipment dropped a bracket. The bracket struck and amputated the employee's left pinky fingertip.

An employee was checking credentials for vehicles entering an area. While approaching a vehicle that had failed to stop as instructed, the employee lost his balance and fell backward, landing on his back. The car struck him, and he suffered a tailbone fracture and a kidney injury.

An employee was riding on the side of a forklift. He stepped off the forklift and was struck by the back end of the forklift as it turned to the right. The forklift's back tire ran over his leg, resulting in an amputation. The employee was hospitalized.

An employee was closing a rear trailer door in the parking lot when they were struck by a forklift. The employee's lower left leg was crushed between the pallet on the forklift and the trailer. The employee sustained muscle damage to their lower leg.

An employee was guiding a customer's automobile onto the alignment rack when the vehicle drove over the rack and pinned the employee against the alignment computer. The employee sustained a bruised left hand and a fractured left fibula and was hospitalized.

A backhoe tractor was moving gravel into a 1-foot-deep trench, and an employee was helping spread the gravel. The trench had been partly filled and the tractor was returning to it with a load of stone when its raised bucket struck the employee, who was standing in the trench. He was hospitalized, having suffered an abdominal injury that caused internal bleeding.

An employee used a crane to set down a bar. The bar measured 9 inches by 16 feet. The strap got stuck under the bar, and the employee asked another employee to jog the roll. The bar rolled and pinched the injured employee's left hand, resulting in a fingertip amputation.

An employee was loading a steel forming machine with steel to be processed. He went to move a cooling hose out of the way and his left thumb was crushed by the forming roller, resulting in injuries that required surgical amputation.

An employee was advancing a rail to line up for welding with a secondary rail on the weld line when his right middle and ring fingers were caught between the rails. The employee sustained an amputation to the top knuckle of the middle finger and a fracture to the ring finger. The machine was guarded at the time.

An employee was working near molten metal and experienced heat illness symptoms including cramps. The employee was hospitalized.

An employee was preparing bundles of 24-foot square metal tubing to be loaded onto a truck and cut the safety band for a bundle. While the employee was removing a piece of dunnage from a bundle, they bumped the bundle with their leg. The metal tubing then fell forward and struck the employee, causing a fractured left ankle.

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 using a vertical band saw to cut a thick piece of rubber material. While being cut, the material shifted, causing the employee s right hand to contact the moving blade. The employee's thumb was amputated below the knuckle. The employee was hospitalized, undergoing surgery.

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.

An employee was on a ladder, taking measurements for a new gutter installation. The ladder slipped out from under him and both he and the ladder fell to the ground. He was hospitalized with seven broken ribs and a broken clavicle.

An employee was unloading a truck for a delivery job. While moving boxes in the truck, the employee tripped over a pallet and fell out of the truck to the ground, resulting in four broken ribs.