Struck by other falling object n.e.c. · Amputations involving bone loss
At a glance
Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Befesa Zinc US Inc., 2701 East 114th Street, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60617
on — Amputations involving bone loss, affecting the Finger or thumb tip(s), nail(s).
Final narrative
On May 14, 2025, an employee was sitting cross-legged and removing a pneumatic rail car vibrator from its bracket to empty the next pocket in the rail car. When the employee went to set the vibrator down, he placed it on a hammer that was sitting in front of him and the vibrator teetered to the side, catching his little finger. The employee sustained an amputated fingertip at the first knuckle.
Amputation Finger or thumb tip(s), nail(s) Other product testing, inspecting, and diagnostic machinery
On June 8, 2022, an employee was walking down a set of stairs while taking out a bag of garbage when they fell down the stairs to the ground below, resulting in a potential concussion.
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 monitoring a conveyor at the operator station. A piece of metal was fed to a conveyor system and it struck another piece of metal, causing a piece of titanium (1-inch-long and 1/2-inch-wide) to break off and strike the employee in their upper chest below the clavicle. The employee was hospitalized and the embedded piece of metal was surgically removed.
An employee was working by the slag side of a reverb in the furnace department. They returned home after the end of their shift and began feeling muscle cramps, resulting in hospitalization due to dehydration.
An employee had been working in the refinery area of the facility. He then began to feel dizzy and suffered other heat illness symptoms. He was hospitalized for possible heat stress.
An employee was opening a railcar compartment using a wrench when the tool broke and the employee slipped and fell to the same level. The employee sustained a fractured lower right leg.
On December 28, 2024, at 10:23 AM, the injured employee was spotting for the operator of a shear crane while conducting tree trimming/removal operations. The injured employee was standing about 4 feet from the ground on top of scrap steel trusses. After the shear crane cut the tree, it began dragging a large branch which struck the injured employee and knocked him down onto the scrap pile. He sustained four broken ribs on the left side and a left lung contusion. The employee was hospitalized.
An employee was changing a die in a press when the die slipped and crushed the employee's left index finger. The employee sustained an open facture of the tuft of the left distal phalanx and a partial amputation.
An employee was driving a boom lift (in the lowered position) in an exterior dock area. The lift s left wheels rolled onto base plates that covered a 3-foot-deep sump pit. The base plates failed, and one side of the lift dropped. The employee's left leg was caught under the lift basket, and he suffered a fracture to the lower leg including the ankle.