Parachute deploys, injuring Chesco town worker

A New Garden Township public works employee sorting trash from a community spring cleanup drive was injured Monday when a self-deploying parachute for an ultralight aircraft deployed in his hand.

The 25-year-old man, whom police did not identify, was taken by ambulance to Christiana Hospital with a serious but non-life-threatening injury to his right hand, police said.

Around 8:40 a.m. Monday, the New Garden Township Police Department responded to the township's public works facility for a report of an explosion. The 25-year-old man and his coworkers were sorting metals and other materials from this weekend's annual spring cleanup drive when he came across a cylindrical object, police said. It was not attached to anything. When he grabbed the object, it deployed. No one else was injured.

Police are investigating what happened and are reviewing surveillance cameras to find who discarded the device.

— Michaelle Bond