Abstract: At 3:12 p.m. on August 31, 2019, an employee, a temporary agency worker, was washing flexible metallic hoses and associated piping used in unloading of high density polyethylene cargo from a rail hopper car. This normally involves four transfer hoses that are connected to transfer piping. In this case, two transfer hoses had been removed from the system, leaving conducting transfers and washing of the system with only two hoses. The employee was using a water hose and spraying up inside the fixed piping with the vacuum system running to wash the piping on a connection that had no transfer hose attached. An automatic closing pneumatic gate valve activated and closed on the employee's hand inside the piping. The employee was hospitalized to treat amputations of all five fingers of his left hand.