How often these injuries happen
OSHA recorded 183 severe incidents involving trucks with mounted machinery. Fractures represent the most common injury type at 38 percent of all cases, often requiring extensive surgical intervention and long-term rehabilitation.
These incidents frequently result in severe trauma, with fingers being the most commonly affected body part at 33 percent of cases. The combination of heavy machinery and high-elevation work often leads to catastrophic outcomes that permanently impact your ability to perform your job.
How these injuries happen
Injuries involving these vehicles typically stem from falls to lower levels, which account for 25 percent of all reported events. You are frequently injured when climbing off truck beds or exiting elevated buckets, often due to slick surfaces or lack of proper fall protection. Other common scenarios include being caught in running equipment at 17 percent or being struck by vehicles during maintenance at 9 percent.
| Cause | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Other fall to lower level | 44 |
| 2 | Caught, entangled in running powered equipment— normal operation | 30 |
| 3 | Struck by running powered equipment— during maintenance, cleaning, testing | 16 |
| 4 | Pedestrian struck by vehicle in nonroadway area | 13 |
| 5 | Caught or wedged between objects— nonrunning | 9 |
| 6 | Struck by rolling powered vehicle or machinery | 7 |
| 7 | Pedestrian struck by vehicle in roadway | 6 |
| 8 | Nonroadway noncollision incident | 6 |
Where injuries happen most
Administrative services account for 30 percent of these incidents, largely due to the use of specialized bucket trucks for utility and maintenance tasks. Construction follows at 24 percent, where the constant movement of dump trucks and heavy machinery in tight, high-traffic zones creates significant risks for you.
Real cases like yours
Common patterns in these reports involve you falling from elevated buckets, being struck by reversing dump trucks, or suffering crush injuries while performing routine maintenance. If any of these scenarios sound like what happened to you, an attorney can help you review the specific circumstances of your incident to determine if employer negligence played a role.
| Year | State | Industry | Incident summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | AR | Wholesale Trade | "On July 31, 2025, an employee was exiting a roll-off truck when their foot slipped causing them to fall backward and strike their back and head on the concrete. The employee was hospitalized with a concussion, a fractured scapula, and three fractured ribs." | |
| 2025 | OH | Construction | "An employee was climbing off the back of a dump truck when he slipped and fell. His right leg struck a piece of scrap metal resulting in a severe laceration to the lower leg. The employee was hospitalized and required surgery." | |
| 2025 | AL | Administrative Services | "An employee was working from a bucket truck about 30 feet in the air. A tree section the employee had just cut made contact with the bucket or boom of the truck, and the employee was forced out of the bucket. The employee fell to the ground and suffered broken ribs, a broken shoulder blade, a broken collarbone, and a collapsed lung." | |
| 2025 | TX | Construction | "On July 10, 2025, two crews were removing stripes and then re-striping pavement in a lane that was fully closed. The injured employee was assisting a subcontracted blasting truck with backing up approximately 1,000 feet to continue stripe removal operations. After giving directions, the employee went to mark additional spots when the truck knocked him to the ground and rolled over his lower half, resulting in fractures to both legs, his hip, and his right ankle." | |
| 2025 | PA | Construction | "An employee was walking across the gravel travel yard when a small-frame dump truck unintentionally reversed and struck the employee. The rear wheels drove over the employee and threw him onto the loose gravel. The employee sustained fractures to his arm, femur, and ankle, as well as a laceration to the hand that required surgery and hospitalization." | |
| 2025 | PA | Construction | "An employee was repairing a tri-axle dump truck on the side of the road when the clutch was released, causing the truck to lurch forward over the wheel chocks. The employee was crushed underneath the first set of rear wheels and sustained a fractured lower left leg and a knee injury." | |
| 2025 | NY | Agriculture | "An employee was driving a farm truck with the dump box raised when he went through a farm building accessway and the dump box struck the entryway of the building. The truck lifted up and came back down, jolting the employee. The employee sustained a back injury." | |
| 2025 | IL | Construction | "At approximately 6:40 AM on July 1, 2025, an employee was in a bucket truck removing a traffic signal head. He fell approximately 12 feet onto the truck bed and then approximately 42 inches onto the pavement. The employee was hospitalized with fractures to his right fibular shaft, right femur, his left tenth rib and L2-L4 transverse processes on his right side." | |
| 2025 | PA | Manufacturing | "At 3:45 p.m. on June 30, 2025, an employee was working out of a bucket truck, installing a fiber drop to a customer. The door of the bucket came open and he fell to the ground 12-15 feet below, suffering a brain bleed, facial factures, four fractured ribs, a possible collapsed lung, possible fractured vertebrae, and possible wrist and ankle fractures." | |
| 2025 | AL | Construction | "Two employees were using a hose to pour concrete during the construction of a concrete wall. Pressure built up at a 90-degree bend in the hose, causing the water to separate from the rock. The hose began to gyrate violently and spray out concrete. One employee was struck on the arm and the leg by the hose, resulting in a fractured arm and leg. The second employee was struck in the face by a mass of concrete that sprayed from the hose, resulting in a broken nose and facial lacerations. Both employees were hospitalized." |
Source: OSHA Severe Injury Reports. Narratives are verbatim from filings; identifying details may have been redacted by OSHA.