How often these injuries happen
OSHA recorded 285 severe cases involving textile, apparel, and leather machinery over the past decade. Amputations are the most frequent injury, accounting for 67% of all reported incidents. These injuries occur suddenly, leaving you with life-altering physical trauma that requires extensive medical intervention and long-term rehabilitation.
The severity of these incidents is driven by equipment that frequently targets your hands and fingers. In 65% of recorded cases, the injury involves one or more fingers. Because these machines operate with high force and speed, the resulting damage to bone and tissue is often irreversible, impacting your ability to return to your previous role.
How these injuries happen
Caught, entangled in running powered equipment during normal operation accounts for 75% of all reported events. You are most often injured when you become caught or entangled in moving parts while feeding material, clearing jams, or adjusting settings. These incidents happen in a split second, often because machines lack adequate guarding or emergency stop mechanisms that would prevent human contact with dangerous nip points.
| Cause | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caught, entangled in running powered equipment— normal operation | 212 |
| 2 | Struck by running powered equipment— unspecified | 22 |
| 3 | Struck by rolling, sliding, or shifting objects—non-running | 16 |
| 4 | Struck by running powered equipment— during maintenance, cleaning, testing | 13 |
| 5 | Compressed between running equipment and other object(s) | 6 |
| 6 | Other fall to lower level | 4 |
| 7 | Struck by falling object | 2 |
| 8 | Vehicle or machinery fire | 2 |
Where injuries happen most
Manufacturing accounts for 62% of all reported incidents, followed by agriculture at 30%. In these environments, high-speed production demands often lead to the bypass of safety protocols or the removal of machine guards to increase output. When your employer prioritizes speed over the installation of physical barriers required by safety standards, you are left vulnerable to the very machinery you operate daily.
Real cases like yours
Common patterns in these reports reveal that injuries frequently occur during routine tasks like clearing jammed material, adjusting dies, or troubleshooting tensioning systems. Many incidents involve machines that were either improperly guarded or lacked functional safety interlocks at the time of the accident. If any of these scenarios sound like what happened to you, an attorney can help you review the specifics of your incident to determine if employer negligence played a role.
| Year | State | Industry | Incident summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | IL | Manufacturing | "The injured employee was training another employee on a sole stamping machine that cuts shoe sole inserts. During the training, the injured employee (trainer) was adjusting the material and die when the machine cycled and their right middle fingertip was amputated. " | |
| 2025 | NY | Manufacturing | "An employee was operating a leatherworking press. When the press opened, leather was stuck to the plate. The employee was retrieving the leather when the press came back down, causing fingertip amputations to his right index, middle, and ring fingers." | |
| 2025 | PA | Transportation & Warehousing | "An employee was troubleshooting the superstack machine. Their right index finger became caught between the strap and anchor of the machine when the strap was tensioned, resulting in a fingertip amputation." | |
| 2025 | FL | Manufacturing | "On April 14, 2025, an employee was fixing a belt on a mattress tape machine. The belt had folded over; as he was unfolding it, it caught his right ring finger and pulled it into a roller. He suffered a partial amputation through the finger bone." | |
| 2025 | RI | Manufacturing | "An employee was beginning to wind fabric onto a wooden shell. His left arm was caught between the fabric and a nip point of the machine, and then pulled into the machine. He was hospitalized with bruising, contusions, and abrasions to his arm, head, and ribs. The machine was not guarded at the time." | |
| 2025 | AL | Manufacturing | "An employee was winding a bobbin on a bobbin-winding machine when the string became entangled. While the employee was untangling it with scissors, the string caught her finger, wrapped around it tightly, and amputated it at the first joint. The machine was guarded at the time." | |
| 2025 | IL | Manufacturing | "An employee was fixing bunched-up cloth in a machine. A doffing bar rose, and his hand was pinched and broken between a roller and a fixed guard. The machine was guarded at the time." | |
| 2025 | CA | Agriculture | "An employee had been using an air gun to blow cotton off the moving parts inside of the length/strength cabinet. The employee went to grab some cotton that was still stuck on the length/strength breaker bracket (above the rear jaw cylinder) when their left fourth finger became pinched. The employee sustained an amputation through the distal phalanx." | |
| 2025 | GA | Manufacturing | "An employee was making a fiber. He used his right hand to smooth the ends of polypropylene yarn and ensure they wrapped evenly onto a beam, spinning at 7 RPM. Some yarn got wrapped around his right middle finger and lacerated the finger and removed the nail, resulting in a distal amputation." | |
| 2025 | TX | Agriculture | "An employee was removing cotton build-up from a roller gin when their hand was pulled into the rollers. The employee sustained soft tissue damage to their right hand and forearm." |
Source: OSHA Severe Injury Reports. Narratives are verbatim from filings; identifying details may have been redacted by OSHA.
Frequently asked questions
Your immediate priority is medical care, followed by documenting the exact circumstances of the machine failure. Ensure the equipment is not altered or repaired before an investigation can occur, as this evidence is critical for your claim. An attorney can help you preserve this evidence and navigate the complex Workers' Compensation process for permanent disability.
Employers are strictly required to provide a safe workplace, which includes installing and maintaining machine guards on all hazardous equipment. If a guard was missing, bypassed, or broken, your employer may be in violation of federal safety standards. An attorney can help you investigate whether these failures contributed to your injury and help you pursue the benefits you deserve.
Workers' Compensation is designed to cover medical expenses and lost wages for you if you are injured on the job, regardless of fault. Because machinery injuries often result in permanent impairment, you may be entitled to additional benefits beyond basic medical coverage. An attorney can help you ensure your claim accurately reflects the long-term impact of your injury on your earning capacity.
Determining if a machine was defective requires a technical review of the equipment's maintenance history, safety features, and operating instructions. If the machine failed to stop as designed or lacked necessary safety interlocks, you may have grounds for a claim beyond standard Workers' Compensation. An attorney can help you work with safety experts to evaluate the equipment and identify all potential avenues for recovery.