Municipal Laborer Dies after being Struck by a Motor Vehicle while Closing a Water Gate Valve – Massachusetts

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Massachusetts Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Project (Massachusetts FACE) ; Massachusetts. Department of Public Health
• Description:
  On August 31, 2009 a 35-year-old male municipal laborer (victim) was fatally injured while responding to a water main break. The victim and a co-worker were assigned to close a water main gate valve located in a roadway approximately 900 feet away from the water main break. They positioned their work pickup truck beyond the valve facing the same direction as the flow of traffic. While the victim was using a gate valve wrench to close the valve, the co-worker was reducing water pressure in the system by releasing water at an adjacent fire hydrant. The co-worker heard a crash and turned to see that the victim had been struck by a minivan that also struck the rear of the work pickup truck. The co-worker went to the victim and then placed a call for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and a call to other co-workers. Within minutes EMS and the local police arrived at the incident location and the victim was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. The Massachusetts FACE Program concluded that to prevent similar occurrences in the future, municipalities should: 1.) Ensure that when performing work in roadways that work zones are set up, at a minimum, in accordance with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), Part 6, developed by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration
  
  2.) Ensure that employees' exposure to moving traffic is minimized when working in and around roadways by developing temporary traffic control plans that include proper positioning of work vehicles
  
  3.) Provide work zone safety training for all employees who will be required to complete tasks while in proximity to roadways
  
  4.) Ensure that each department develops, implements, and enforces a comprehensive health and safety program that includes training on hazard recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions
  
  and 5.) Provide work environments that, at a minimum, meet all relevant Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations and industry accepted standards of practice.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Protective Clothing Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 1 Public-utilities Safety-clothing Safety-education Safety-measures Safety-practices Safety-programs Training Traumatic-injuries Warning-devices Work-analysis Work-areas Work-environment Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Highway Work Zones ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE09MA031
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-9
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037822
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2011-102056
• 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 09MA031, 2010 Jun ; :1-9
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Performing Organization:
  Massachusetts State Department of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  22 - Utilities - (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-512:69669e2bad280697dcca14632694789f9efa17efb2c484586022b2a910518da97386ac8f379579e3f6be2a508febf5029db46d953f341ec1ae2c363c55984d89
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/165274/cdc_165274_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 334.83 KB ]