# Fractures and soft tissue injuries at Veolia North America
> OSHA SIR `2025032326` · 3/11/2025 · NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT
## Severity
- **1 hospitalization**
- **Body part:** Trunk and other upper extremities
- **Nature of injury:** Fractures and soft tissue injuries
## Cause
- **Event:** Fall to lower level from collapsing structure or equipment  less than 6 feet
- **Source:** Existing opening, hole in constructed surface
- **Secondary source:** Ditches, channels, trenches, excavations
## Employer
- **Name:** Veolia North America
- **Location:** 24 Commerce Road, NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT, 06470
- **NAICS:** 221320
- **Jurisdiction:** 1
## Narrative

An employee was working in a wastewater facility, cleaning a metal screen. He positioned it against a railing on top of a metal grating, which was above a headworks bypass channel. When he stepped onto a trapezoid-shaped section of grating, it slid forward and tipped into the channel. The employee fell about 5 feet into the channel, which contained about 1 foot of stagnant wastewater. He suffered a rotator cuff and ligament tear in his left shoulder, a contusion on the left side of his back, a broken left-side rib, and a tear of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee.

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*Source: [OSHA Severe Injury Reports](https://www.osha.gov/severe-injury-reports) · MORVS · CC0 1.0*