The injured employee was standing near a plastic roll machine while another employee was taking a quality control sample of the plastic film. The machine was powered off at the time of sampling. Upon completion of the sampling, the machine was started up again and a metal shaft was ejected. The metal shaft still had a roll of plastic on it; it weighed approximately 920 pounds and it was positioned approximately 8 feet above the ground. The metal shaft struck the injured employee, who then fell into the second employee. The second employee fell to the ground and sustained contusions but was not hospitalized. The injured employee's left leg was broken below the knee and the employee was hospitalized.