How often these injuries happen
OSHA recorded 51 severe cases involving tillage, planting, and cultivating machinery over the last decade. Amputations are the most frequent injury, accounting for 47 percent of all reported incidents. These injuries often involve your fingers and hands, leading to life-altering physical consequences.
The severity of these incidents stems from the high-torque nature of the equipment. When your fingers or limbs are caught in running machinery, the resulting trauma to bones and tissue is often irreversible. You may require extensive hospitalization and long-term rehabilitation to manage the impact of these mechanical failures.
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Check My BenefitsHow these injuries happen
Most injuries occur when you are caught or entangled in running equipment during normal operation. This happens when safety guards are missing, bypassed, or fail to stop the machine during a jam. Other common scenarios include being struck by equipment that shifts unexpectedly or being pinned between machinery and stationary objects like deck posts or truck racks.
| Cause | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caught, entangled in running powered equipment— normal operation | 15 |
| 2 | Nonroadway noncollision incident | 9 |
| 3 | Other fall to lower level | 8 |
| 4 | Struck by falling object | 4 |
| 5 | Struck by running powered equipment— unspecified | 3 |
| 6 | Compressed between running equipment and other object(s) | 3 |
| 7 | Struck by running powered equipment— during maintenance, cleaning, testing | 2 |
| 8 | Caught or wedged between objects— nonrunning | 1 |
Where injuries happen most
Agriculture accounts for 31 percent of these severe incidents, reflecting the high-frequency use of heavy planting and cultivating tools. Administrative services and wholesale trade also see significant injury rates, often occurring when you operate walk-behind aerators or maneuver heavy equipment in warehouse and retail settings where space is confined.
Real cases like yours
Common patterns in these reports involve you attempting to clear jams, adjust hitches, or maneuver equipment on inclines without adequate machine guarding. Many incidents occur when machines re-energize unexpectedly or slip during operation, pinning you against nearby structures. If any of these scenarios sound like what happened to you, an attorney can help you review the specifics of your incident.
| Year | State | Industry | Incident summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | NY | Retail Trade | "An employee was on the back of a box truck, working to maneuver a roto tiller away from the metal tool rack that hangs on the walls of the truck. His left ringer fingertip became pinned/stuck between the metal handle of the roto tiller and the metal tool rack, resulting in amputation of the fingertip." | |
| 2025 | OH | Other Services | "On March 3, 2025, an employee was preparing air seeder equipment to be washed in the bay and disconnected the pin from the hitch in the connected tractor. The tractor then pulled away. While replacing the pin, the hitch fell two feet onto the employee's left foot and the securing safety chain and bolt pierced his boot behind the steel toe. The employee sustained amputation injuries to the second toe." | |
| 2024 | PA | Administrative Services | "An employee was operating/pushing a self-propelled, walk-behind aerator up a hill when the aerator started to slip and drift toward a deck post. The employee was was caught between the aerator and the deck post and sustained a puncture to the right leg below the knee." | |
| 2024 | OH | Administrative Services | "An employee was operating an aerator when the blades amputated their right middle finger between the first and second knuckles." | |
| 2024 | FL | Agriculture | "An employee was planting sod when the machine he was using became stuck. The employee attempted to push the stop button and move the chain that rotates the grinder/sod cutter. The machine then jumped and reenergized. The employee suffered partial amputations to one or two fingers on their left hand, and was hospitalized." | |
| 2024 | AL | Manufacturing | "An employee had just loaded a tractor onto a truck. The employee unhooked the tractor and began adjusting the placement of the middle buster. The middle buster fell onto the employee's left ring finger, crushing and fracturing it." | |
| 2024 | FL | Arts & Entertainment | "An employee was clearing the stuck pulley of the aerator. As the pulley became unstuck, the employee's right ring finger was caught in either the pulley or the blades of the aerator, amputating the fingertip. The machine was not locked or tagged out at the time." | |
| 2023 | OH | Manufacturing | "On November 8, 2023, an employee was making depth adjustments on a strip tiller. The shank slipped and fell, and the employee suffered a fingertip amputation." | |
| 2023 | IL | Other Services | "An employee was installing a belt on a fertilizer spreading machine when their lower left tibia was fractured by a moving chain and sprocket." | |
| 2023 | NE | Construction | "An employee was using an auger to spread lime to treat soil. The employee started warm-up operations for the equipment and went to lubricate the grease point located at the rear of the cart. The employee's glove became entangled in the moving chain, causing his right middle finger to become pinched between the chain and the sprocket. The employee sustained a partial traumatic transphalangeal amputation of the right middle finger." |
Source: OSHA Severe Injury Reports. Narratives are verbatim from filings; identifying details may have been redacted by OSHA.