Steel, Cranes, and a Finger in a Glove: A Tale of What Not to Do

Some workplaces leave a lasting impression for all the wrong reasons. One site I visited, a warehouse dealing with heavy raw steel and a fleet of overhead cranes, was precisely that.

My first visit was proactive—the head office had asked me to dig into musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) injuries. The idea was to comb through the injury registers and see what trends popped up.

Well, one entry did more than “pop up.”

A driver had steel lowered onto his leg while standing on the deck of his truck. The CCTV footage showed his leg bending in ways bones aren’t meant to bend. Clearly broken. And yet, management instructed him to complete his delivery run before heading home, which he did. Because he was a labour hire, not one of their “own.”

I later confirmed he needed surgery that same day. That makes it a notifiable incident.

Only, no one notified anyone.

Naturally, a few improvement notices followed. Usually, you’d give them 4–6 weeks to sort things out. I didn’t need to wait that long.

Round Two

Two weeks later, I was back, this time on a response inspection after—guess what—another incident. Same warehouse. Same overhead cranes. Same steel. Different driver.

This time, a finger got caught between two pieces of steel during loading. The driver was bundled into a car and driven to hospital by a colleague. No ambulance, of course. The manager, who I’d already had stern words with during my previous visit, was physically shaking when I arrived.

At the scene, a rigger’s glove was wedged between the steel lengths on the back of a truck. Inside the glove? The top third of a finger, nail and all.

I couldn’t help but laugh. It’s the sort of gallows humour you develop when faced with absurd, preventable carnage. My partner refused to take a photo, so I had him hold the glove open for me to take photos of the evidence instead.

I told the employer rep, “I’m no doctor, but I reckon there’s a greater chance of reconnecting the finger if it’s with the person it came from.” Dead silence. No one saw the humour.

When the rep asked what to do with it, I told him, “Perhaps ask the owner.” Instead, he chucked the glove—finger still inside—into the bin in the mess room. Problem solved, apparently.

More notices were issued. I honestly can’t recall whether prosecution followed, but it would’ve been a safe bet.

Lessons Learned

The stories might sound outrageous, but they highlight recurring, dangerous failings that crop up across industries:

1. Notifiable means notifiable. A broken leg requiring surgery from workplace activity is not optional paperwork—it’s legally reportable. Ignoring this only digs the hole deeper.
   

2. Labour hire workers are not expendable. The law doesn’t draw a line between “ours” and “theirs.” Everyone on site is your responsibility.
   

3. Emergency response matters. If your plan for a crushed finger is “have Dave drive him to hospital in the Hilux,” you don’t have a plan. Delays can cost limbs.
   

4. Safety culture starts at the top. The trembling manager said it all—they knew things were rotten but hadn’t acted. Fear doesn’t fix culture, leadership does.
   

5. Respect the human factor. At the end of every incident report is a person who expected to go home intact. The callousness of binning a glove with part of someone’s body inside shows exactly what not to do.
   

Final Word

Warehouses like this don’t operate in a vacuum—they set the tone for how workers, contractors, and labour hire crews understand safety. If the message is “we don’t care,” then incidents like a crushed leg or severed finger aren’t accidents at all.

They’re inevitabilities.

I was only an inspector for a couple of years, but trust me, there was plenty I saw in that short time... enough to leave me with the confidence that a career in safety is secure.