Laborer Dies when Crushed Between Forklift Cage and Mast

Details

• Personal Author:
  Anderson, Henry A. ; Islam, KM Monirul ; Lins, Meredith ; Sieger, Thomas
• Corporate Authors:
  Wisconsin Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (Wisconsin FACE) ; Wisconsin. Division of Public Health. Bureau of Occupational Health
• Description:
  On January 21, 2004, a 41-year-old male laborer (the victim) died when he was crushed between the cage of a forklift and the forklift mast. The victim was using a Caterpillar forklift (powered industrial truck) to unload bundled lumber from a semi-truck in the warehouse of a cabinet manufacturing shop. He had unloaded three bundles of lumber and stacked them against a wall in the building. He was preparing to stack the fourth bundle on top of the third bundle and it is surmised that he noticed one of the spacers on the third bundle, upon which the fourth bundle would be placed, was missing. The victim apparently climbed to the top of the bundle on the forklift to the area where the spacer should have been, and slipped, falling into the forklift controls. This caused the mast to tilt backwards and pin him. He was alone at the time of the incident and was found pinned between the forklift cage and the mast by the semi-truck driver. The semi-truck driver summoned other employees in the warehouse. The victim was freed from the forklift and CPR was performed by two other employees, while a third employee notified the emergency medical services (EMS). EMS arrived within five minutes and continued CPR. They determined the victim had no signs of life and contacted the county coroner, who requested the victim be transported to a local hospital. EMS transported the victim in the ambulance to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. FACE investigators concluded that, to help prevent similar occurrences, employers should: 1. ensure that employees follow safety standards for properly dismounting a forklift
  
  2. ensure that employees follow the safety standards for proper load manipulation, unloading and stacking
  
  3. ensure that the forklift operator's retraining covers his assigned duties.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 5 Safety-education Traumatic-injuries Warehousing Work-analysis Work-operations Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Machine (All) ; Machine - General
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE04WI003
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Wisconsin ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-7
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20029470
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2006-105515
• 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 04WI003, 2006 Feb ; :1-7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  Wisconsin Department of Health & Family Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1991/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d81e460246c114255659f7df6eb4adad4c43b84d2a072dedd8a389c75c51223bab6325c866cc5b153aea9d282b428fad8c45b75b63c995a8a8651e5964ab477c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166360/cdc_166360_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 133.94 KB ]