An employee at a scrap metal-recycling company near Hagerstown was injured this week when he was struck by a forklift, marking the second workplace incident there in less than a month.
Randy Peace, 31, of Hagerstown was working at Conservit on Wednesday morning when he was hit and pinned between the forklift and the ground, then dragged for a short distance, according to his wife, Kalah Peace.
"Nothing fell on him," she wrote in an interview through Facebook on Friday.
Kalah Peace said her husband was taken to R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he underwent surgery Thursday morning.
He remained hospitalized there in fair condition Friday, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Conservit President Jack Metzner — who declined to identify Peace, citing privacy —said the incident is under investigation, both internally and by Maryland Occupational Safety and Health.
A spokeswoman with the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation confirmed that MOSH launched an investigation into the incident, but declined further comment.
Metzner said the business has not been restricted or shut down as a result of the incident or the investigation.
"Right now, it's just much like the other incident," he said. "There's an ongoing review taking place right now and I imagine I'll be hearing more with MOSH and their findings" next week.
The incident follows a fatal accident at Conservit on March 5, when a vehicle slipped off a forklift and fell on 51-year-old Curtis Lynn Beasley of Hagerstown.
Beasley died at the scene, according to authorities.
Metzner said the car forklift was different from the one involved in Wednesday's incident at the business, which is off Sharpsburg Pike, south of Hagerstown.
The forklift operator stopped immediately after coming into contact with Peace, according to Metzner. He said the employee remained conscious and alert before he was taken to Meritus Medical Center for treatment of injuries not considered life threatening.
"He was awake through the whole thing and could let us know how he felt," Metzner said.
In the wake of the incidents, Metzner said, the company is making changes to improve safety, such as slowing the flow of materials and having two or three people, rather than just one, stationed at different locations to help maintain communication between workers.
"We're putting lots of safeguards into place," he said. "That's really the game plan here."
At the time, the fatal accident at Conservit was the fifth death linked to an industrial accident in the Tri-State area over a span of 32 days.
Three men died from injuries in a crane accident on Feb. 2 at Manitowoc Co.’s 300-acre manufacturing facility east of Greencastle, Pa. On Feb. 28, another man was killed when a piece of equipment fell on him at Mellott Manufacturing north of Mercersburg, Pa.
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A Conservit employee died Monday morning after a vehicle being transported by a forklift slipped off and hit him at the scrap-metal recycler south of Hagerstown, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
The sheriff's office on Monday afternoon identified the employee as Curtis Lynn Beasley, 51, of Hagerstown.
Beasley died at the scene. His body was to be sent to the state medical examiner's office for an autopsy.
The incident at the business at 18656 Leslie Drive, off Sharpsburg Pike, south of Hagerstown, was ruled an accident.
Multiple emergency-service units were called to Conservit after an initial report came in at 7:55 a.m. Monday for a man trapped under a vehicle, a 911 supervisor said.
The 911 supervisor said the man had a crushing injury.
It appeared a vehicle had fallen on the man, though the 911 supervisor did not know the circumstances.
Wind was not a factor, according to the sheriff's office.
Maryland Occupational Safety and Health responded to the scene.
Conservit is an employee-owned scrap-metal recycler. The operation shreds metal, including vehicles.
This is the fifth death related to an industrial accident in the Tri-State area in the past 32 days.
Three men died from injuries related to a crane accident on Feb. 2 at Manitowoc Co.’s 300-acre manufacturing facility off Pa. 16 in Antrim Township.
Chris Robison, 49, of Marion, Pa., and 66-year-old John Marcoux of Chambersburg, Pa., were killed in the crane accident the day it occurred.
A third man — Isaac Dean Notz, 38, of Wisconsin — died Feb. 10
Separately, Cameron Allen Funk, 19, of Greencastle, Pa., was killed last Wednesday at Mellott Manufacturing in Peters Township, Pa., after a heavy piece of manufacturing equipment fell on him. The plant is at 13156 Long Lane, north of Mercersburg.
Mellott produces log and lumber handling equipment, according to its website.