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The 36-year-old Interstate Waste Services employee from Spring Valley was on Carter Street, near Old Tappan, when his left ring finger got caught between the trash and the dump box panel shortly after noon, Officer Nick Moltzen said.
The panel severed the top third of his left ring finger to the knuckle, Moltzen said.
The victim told police he was in so much pain that he "just started walking," the officer said.
Meanwhile, his finger continued to bleed.
Temperatures had passed 90 degrees as the injured worker headed over to Broadway in the blazing sun before walking down Summit Street to Blanch Avenue, where he approached an officer on a utility work traffic detail.
The officer, joined by Moltzen, taped two of the man's fingers together and wrapped his hand.
The Demarest Volunteer Ambulance Corps then took him to Hackensack University Medical Center.
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