ORNL equipment weighing 1,500 pounds falls on worker’s legs

A piece of surplus equipment that weighs more than 1,500 pounds tipped over and fell onto the legs of an Oak Ridge National Laboratory worker on March 31, fracturing both legs and breaking his thumb, a spokesman said.

When it tipped over, a few ORNL employees were loading the scattering chamber and cart onto the box truck of a person who had purchased the equipment at an auction, said David Keim, ORNL communications director.

A few metal arms that protrude from the scattering chamber might have hit the floor of the truck and created some space between the “deceptively heavy” piece of equipment and the worker’s legs, preventing even more serious injuries, Keim said. Also, the chamber and cart might have hit other equipment already loaded into the back of the truck, also helping to prevent more serious injuries.

“It’s terrible that he was injured,” Keim said. “We’re glad this wasn’t more serious.”

The scattering chamber is mounted on a cart, and it’s a big magnet with vacuum tubing, Keim said. It was excess equipment from the lab’s Physics Division.

He said the buyer’s box truck was backed up to a loading dock, and there was a small difference in elevation between the back of the truck and the loading dock at ORNL’s Excess Property and Sales warehouse on Union Valley Road. When the surplus equipment hit that boundary, it tipped.

“The center of gravity was very high,” Keim said. “Once it hit that unevenness and started tipping, it didn’t take much to tip over.”

He said one worker was behind the equipment and the other was on the opposite side, in the “fall zone.”

“When it fell, he couldn’t get out of the way,” Keim said.

He said he couldn’t identify the worker, but the man was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center for treatment. Keim said he wasn’t sure how long the injured man was at the hospital, and he couldn’t comment on how soon or whether the employee might return to work.

Keim said the lab is reviewing its procedures after the incident and getting input from many people.

“Our initial thought is that this is a reminder to always make safety a top priority, and to stop doing something if there’s a question about whether it’s a safe thing to do,” he said.