How often these injuries happen
OSHA recorded 28 severe cases involving waste management machinery over the past year and a half. Amputations, avulsions, and enucleations account for 57% of these incidents.
The physical toll of these accidents is concentrated heavily on your fingers, which account for 62% of all injuries. These severe outcomes often result from direct contact with moving parts, leading to permanent loss of function and extensive recovery periods.
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Check My BenefitsHow these injuries happen
Injuries involving waste management machinery most frequently occur when you are struck by running powered equipment during maintenance, cleaning, or testing, accounting for 44% of all reported events. These incidents often happen when a machine is not properly DE-energized, leading to unexpected cycles or movement while you are clearing a jam or performing routine adjustments.
| Cause | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Struck by running powered equipment— during maintenance, cleaning, testing | 11 |
| 2 | Caught or wedged between objects— nonrunning | 5 |
| 3 | Other fall to lower level | 4 |
| 4 | Caught, entangled in running powered equipment— normal operation | 4 |
| 5 | Vehicle or machinery fire | 1 |
Where injuries happen most
Wholesale Trade accounts for 32% of all severe incidents, as these facilities rely heavily on high-volume balers and conveyor systems to process packaging materials. The fast-paced nature of these environments often creates pressure to clear jams quickly, which can lead to the bypass of critical safety protocols like lockout-tagout procedures.
Real cases like yours
Common patterns in these incidents involve you attempting to clear jammed material or perform routine maintenance on balers and chippers without fully isolating the machine's power source. These reports frequently detail instances where your fingers or arms are caught in moving rollers, rams, or gates, resulting in immediate and severe trauma. If any of these scenarios sound like what happened to you, an attorney can help you understand your legal options.
| Year | State | Industry | Incident summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | GA | Retail Trade | "An employee was fixing the gate on a cardboard baler when his left middle finger got caught in the gate. The employee's finger was partially amputated and he required surgery." | |
| 2025 | AL | Manufacturing | "An employee was feeding scrap metal into a chipper when his right hand was squeezed against a metal component of the machine. He suffered an amputation to the right index finger at the second joint." | |
| 2025 | CO | Retail Trade | "An employee was troubleshooting a malfunctioning baler (cardboard compactor) that was constantly cycling. The employee went to wipe the photo eye when his left middle fingertip was sheared off by the ram of the baler. The employee sustained a partial amputation of approximately 0.6 cm of the fingertip." | |
| 2025 | KS | Wholesale Trade | "An employee was greasing the rollers on the tumbler when his right arm was caught between two rollers and lacerated. The employee was hospitalized. The rollers were not locked out/tagged out." | |
| 2025 | PA | Wholesale Trade | "An employee freed jammed material from the conveyor of a material separator when their right arm got caught in the conveyor, resulting in fractures to the upper and lower arm." | |
| 2025 | TX | Wholesale Trade | "An employee was troubleshooting an electrical issue on a baler. When the machine started, the employee's hand was amputated." | |
| 2025 | NJ | Manufacturing | "An employee was clearing a jam inside a hogger machine. The employee's left hand came into contact with blades in the machine, resulting in hospitalization with a fractured left hand." | |
| 2025 | TX | Wholesale Trade | "An employee was manually spinning a rotor of knife blades for a shredder as part of routine maintenance. The employee's left hand slipped between two knife blades, resulting in a partial amputation of the ring finger and the amputation of the little finger." | |
| 2025 | CA | Transportation & Warehousing | "An employee was unloading mail into a dumpster machine. The employee's left little finger was caught between the over-the-rail (OTR) and a bar of the machine, and was partially amputated." | |
| 2025 | OK | Construction | "An employee was walking on a landing when he jumped over a tire grinding machine, fell about 6 feet to the ground, and landed on his feet. The employee sustained fractures to both heels. The employee was hospitalized for surgery." |
Source: OSHA Severe Injury Reports. Narratives are verbatim from filings; identifying details may have been redacted by OSHA.