Amputations

An employee brought a straddle truck into the shop to change the right rear shoe assembly lifting cylinder. He used a floor jack to support the weight of the lifting shoe so the locking clamp that holds the lifting shoe onto the hydraulic lifting cylinder shaft could be removed. The employee had a crescent wrench in his right hand at the time and taped on the clamp but found that the clamp was already free of the shaft. He attempted to push the back half of the clamp out to remove it from around the cylinder shaft and put the clamp on the floor. As he was doing this with his left hand, he put his right hand down on the floor to support himself while kneeling. The jack came out from under the shoe, and the shoe dropped a few inches to the floor. The wrench the employee had in his right hand was partially under the shoe when it dropped. The shoe fell onto the end of the wrench, and the employee's fingers were caught between the wrench handle and the floor, amputating the right-hand index and middle fingers at the first joint.