Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Cactus Drilling Company, LLC, 428 Harmony Road, SAN AUGUSTINE, TEXAS 75972
on — Fractures , affecting the Multiple leg locations n.e.c..
Final narrative
An employee was watching the landing joint being lowered into the rotary table when it clipped the slip bowl, causing the slip bowl to flip over and strike the employee's legs. The employee's right femur was fractured and they sustained a fracture to the left leg below the knee. The employee was hospitalized.
Hospitalized Multiple leg locations n.e.c. Rotary system equipment
More severe injuries at Cactus Drilling Company, LLC
A 5.5-inch production casing was being rolled. An employee was loading it onto a hydraulic catwalk when their left little fingertip was crushed between casing and the casing roller ramp. The fingertip was amputated behind the nailbed.
An employee was inspecting the liners of a mud pump that was making noise. The machine was shut down. As the pump was idling down, the inspection plate blew and knocked the employee back. Hot gear oil from the pump blew onto him, causing second-degree burns to his left arm and the left side of his face and ear. The employee was hospitalized.
An employee was pulling back a stand of heavy-weight drill pipe so it could be racked in the derrick. While the driller was slacking off with the top-drive, the injured employee unlatched the drill pipe elevators and pulled the pipe toward himself. The pipe came at him faster than expected and as he tried to get out of the way, the pipe hit his left ankle/leg and fractured the left tibia.
An employee pulled a stand of drill pipe back and had just finished pushing it back into a "finger" before securing it with rope. The driller was coming down with top drives and blocks. A gust of wind blew the employee's secondary retention into the Kelly hose clamp. As a result, the top drive pulled the cable and the employee down into the steel frame of the derrick board. The employee's left hip and right femur were fractured.
An employee was slacking off with the top drive and blocks so the elevators could be latched to a drill collar on the hydraulic catwalk. The employee went to grab the horns of the elevators to help maneuver them around the pipe. His left middle fingertip was crushed between the elevators and lift sub on the drill collar resulting in an amputation.
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 stepping down off a 6-inch containment platform to finish loading his truck, when his right ankle rolled. The employee sustained a fractured tibia and fibula at the right ankle and required surgery.
A service crew was pulling a pump and motor from a well. After breaking a joint of pipe loose from another joint, an employee grabbed the chain tongs to prevent the pipe from spinning in the well, so the crew could continue taking it apart. The bolt that attaches the chain to the handle of the chain tongs broke, causing the chain to swing around and strike the employee's lower right leg. The chain severely punctured his leg and fractured his tibia.
An employee arrived on location and loaded a blow-out-preventer (BOP) on a 1-ton flatbed truck. While standing on the flatbed securing the the BOP, the employee stepped into a void/hole on the flatbed surface. This caused him to lose balance and fall off the truck bed with his leg still caught in the hole. As a result, he sustained fractures to his left leg.
An employee was rigging up a location. He was using an Allen wrench to free up rotation and start the drawworks engine manually. The engine rotated and his left little finger became caught between the Allen wrench and the engine. The employee sustained an amputation to his little finger and fractures to his 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.