Glenn O. Hawbaker, Incorporated

An employee was guiding a plastic pipe in a trench to connect into a manhole inlet. The pipe was being lowered by an excavator and measured 12 inches in diameter and approximately 13 feet long. The employee was holding the end of the plastic pipe to maneuver it under the spreader of the ditch box when his left middle fingertip was pinched between the plastic pipe end and the spreader. The employee suffered a cut that resulted in surgical amputation of the fingertip.