Highway worker crushed by swinging backhoe boom

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Oregon Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (Program) (OR-FACE) ; Oregon Health & Science University. Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences
• Description:
  On July 1, 2007, a 47-year-old road construction worker was killed while working on the ground alongside a backhoe. The worker was a journeyman equipment operator working together with an apprentice, who operated the backhoe. The two road workers were preparing to pull pins from concrete barricades along the roadside, so they could be moved. The journeyman had been on the job with this company only 2 days, and the two workers had never worked together before. The journeyman retrieved two heavy steel pin pullers and a chain from the front loader bucket and walked to the rear of the backhoe, where he tossed one of the pin pullers into the cab. The pin puller fell on a foot pedal that controlled the backhoe boom swing, and the boom instantly swung sideways and crushed the journeyman operator against the raised rear stabilizer. The apprentice operator heard the journeyman yell and swiveled to the rear, where he saw the heavy pin on top of the foot-pedal control. He swung the boom back to its neutral position to free the journeyman and called for emergency help. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. CAUSE OF DEATH: Crushing chest trauma. RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Workers on the ground near an operating backhoe must never stand in the pinch point of the backhoe boom. 2. Foot-pedal controls on a backhoe should have a guard or other disabling mechanism to prevent accidental activation of the boom when not in use. 3. Employers must regularly reinforce safety training, even with experienced workers, and make sure safety materials and equipment operator instructions are reviewed for each specific machine used by a worker.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Automobiles Construction Industry Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Author Keywords: Construction Construction Construction-equipment Construction-industry Construction-workers Equipment-operators Highway Work Zone Injuries Injury-prevention Machine-operation Machine-operators Mobile Machinery Motor-vehicles OSHA Region 10 Safety-education Training Traumatic-injuries Work-operations

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Construction
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE07OR017
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Oregon ; OSHA Region 10
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045591
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2015-102764
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 07OR017, 2009 Jan ; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• Performing Organization:
  Oregon Health & Science University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2005/07/01
• End Date:
  2026/06/30
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f033e3693ce837846e82ab17b2b3d2b7628155b5c0b3b57c58691b00b28a6d70c8c79ce31d5947f5acc6f5689a04f43d65c52b823423c0bf0b52152e51d3cefe
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/165121/cdc_165121_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 191.76 KB ]