Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Macksteel Warehouse, Inc., 415 20th Avenue Southeast, WATERTOWN, SOUTH DAKOTA 57201
on — Fractures , affecting the Ankle(s) and hip(s).
Final narrative
An employee was rigging bundles of round tubing to be lifted from the floor onto a rack using an overhead crane and a spreader beam. As the load was being lifted, it began to lean to one side. The employee reached out to hold up the end of the bundle. The bundle (weighing approximately 1,500 pounds) continued to lean further until it slipped from the chains and fell onto the employee from a height of 5 feet. The bundle knocked him to the ground and landed on him. The employee sustained fractures to his hip and ankle.
An employee was using the forks on a forklift to support a 1-inch thick sheet of metal. The forklift was lifting the sheet up two inches from the original process bed when a 1-inch thick metal skeleton (cut out of the sheet of metal) dropped through the original sheet onto the employee's left ring fingertip. A quarter inch of the fingertip was amputated.
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.
A load of steel angles was being lowered when the lifting chain hit the load, causing it to slide toward an employee. An angle slid and pinched the employee, catching both of their legs between the beams and an angle. The employee suffered two fractured legs.
An employee was on the deck of a trailer helping a customer unload tubes. The employee was working to place a cargo strap on the remaining tubes using a winch bar when it slipped off the tubing, causing him to lose his balance and fall headfirst onto the asphalt lot below. The employee suffered a contusion on his forehead, resulting in hospitalization.
An employee and a customer were unloading two rectangular tubes. The tubes were wrapped together. The plastic wrap was cut so that one tube could be picked up. As the employee was lifting the top tube, the other tube (still connected to the top tube) came down onto his hand and broke two of his fingers. He was hospitalized.
An employee was assisting as a forklift got pipe from a pipe rack. The employee was on one of the forklift's forks as it was raised to the top of the rack, a height of about 15 feet. He fell to the ground and suffered a dislocated and fractured right elbow.
On September 23, 2025, at approximately 7:43 p.m., an employee was using a knife to cut poly banding from a metal coil. The knife slipped, causing a laceration to the inside of their left arm at the elbow joint. The employee was hospitalized and required surgery to repair a damaged vein.
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 walking past a crossover conveyor when a ramp came down and hit them in the back. The employee sustained a broken back vertebra, as well as a concussion, and was hospitalized.
An employee was using a hook tool to pull a pallet onto the lift gate of a tractor trailer. The hook detached from the underside of the pallet, causing the employee to fall backward off the lift gate. The employee landed on the concrete parking lot about 5 feet below, suffering fractures to the skull and two thoracic vertebrae.
An employee was walking on a truss table when he lost his balance and fell approximately 3 feet to the floor. The employee sustained a dislocated and fractured left ankle.