Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at WM Recycle America, L.L.C., 1923 Meridian Street, ARLINGTON, TEXAS 76011
on — Fractures , affecting the Exterior and musculoskeletal structures of the back unspecified.
Final narrative
An employee was cutting off bracing from an 8 x 12' metal wall when the wall fell, striking the employee on their side and back. The employee sustained bruised ribs and two fractures in their back.
Hospitalized Exterior and musculoskeletal structures of the back unspecified Walls
More severe injuries at WM Recycle America, L.L.C.
On September 26, 2022, an employee was on a step ladder to adjust a belt tail pulley on a commingle machine. Momentum from the adjustment caused the employee to slip on the ladder. He attempted to brace himself and his arm was pulled into the machine's rotating belt. The employee sustained a degloving injury and fracture to the right forearm, as well as a dislocation of the right shoulder.
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 working on a loading ramp that was stuck open (upright). The employee went under the ramp to release it. When he pulled on a chain that was holding the ramp open, the ramp came down rapidly, striking the right side of his face (cheek) and the right side of his neck. The employee was hospitalized.
A driver was climbing the rear trailer ladder to facilitate tarping when they lost balance, slipped, and fell approximately 6-8 feet to the ground. The employee sustained a fractured wrist.
After cutting a slab of beef short ribs, an employee turned to grab the pieces he had cut and his right hand contacted the saw blade. The employee sustained an amputation to his right index finger.
An employee was unloading a carpet pad from a truck when they fell from the truck dock to the concrete below, resulting in five fractured ribs and an injury to their left lung.
An employee was walking up a walkway to enter a building through the back entrance when she tripped over the lip of the cement ramp. The employee fell and sustained a fractured right hip.