VMC Specialty Alloys, LLC

An employee was injured when two, 19-inch diameter, 16-foot-long aluminum billets weighing approximately 7,000 - 10,000 pounds each, rolled off the forks of a fork truck while he was stacking steel I-beams as spacers so that the aluminum billets could be placed in the homogenization oven. The fork truck lost hydraulic power to the forks which were holding the billets. This caused them to tilt forward (down) and strike the employee. The billets had an approximate average temperature of at least 500 degrees Fahrenheit. The employee suffered second degree burns to the left hand, a fractured and displaced left ankle, a left distal fibular fracture, multiple fractures on the left and right feet and toes, and third degree burns from the ankle to the waist of the left side. The employee was hospitalized.