Truck Driver Run Over by Trash Compactor at Municipal Landfill

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  New York State Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Program (NY FACE) ; New York (State). Department of Health ; New York (State). Bureau of Occupational Health
• Description:
  On February 20, 2002, a 35 year-old male truck driver (the victim) sustained fatal injuries as a result of being run over by a mobile landfill compactor at a local municipal landfill. The victim, a truck driver for a municipal solid waste (MSW) trucking company, was delivering a load of refuse to the landfill at approximately 2:00 p.m. He pulled his semi-truck up to a working face, where landfill employees were operating two landfill compactors and a bulldozer, and started unloading. At approximately 2:20 p.m., one of the landfill compactors backed up along the driver's side of the victim's truck to get sand from a sand pile. The back up alarm on the compactor was working properly and the operator stated that he looked through both the rear and side mirrors before he began backing up but did not see the victim in his path. When the compactor curved away from the victim's truck, the other compactor operator saw the victim lying on the ground next to his semi-truck waving his hands for help. It appeared that the victim had been struck by the compactor as he was putting a broom into his truck following unloading. The victim suffered massive crushing wounds to his left torso (pelvic area) and left leg. Paramedics were summoned immediately and responded within minutes. The victim was treated at the scene before being transported by helicopter to a hospital trauma center where he died six days later. New York State Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) investigators concluded that to help prevent similar incidents from occurring, employers should: 1. Develop a traffic control plan that can be used to coordinate the movements of personnel on foot, landfill mobile equipment and delivery trucks
  
  2. Enforce a policy that requires delivery drivers to remain in the truck cab during unloading
  
  3. Consider using additional safety devices on landfill equipment to warn drivers when someone is in their blind spot
  
  4. Develop and enforce a policy that requires all landfill employees, delivery drivers and visitors to wear high visibility safety vests while they are on landfill property
  
  Additionally, MSW trucking companies should: 5. Design, develop, and implement a comprehensive health and safety program and train all employees in the program.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Health Promotion Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Protective Clothing Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Author Keywords: Landfill Clothing Equipment-operators Health-programs Injuries Injury-prevention Machinery OSHA Region 2 Safety-clothing Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Safety-programs Traffic Training Traumatic-injuries Trucking Warning-devices Warning-signals Warning-systems Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Machine (All) ; Machine - General ; Motor Vehicles - Refuse Truck
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE02NY007
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028608
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2010-111706
• 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 02NY007, 2002 Aug ; :1-8
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• Performing Organization:
  New York State Department of Health/Health Research Incorporated
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  48-49 - Transportation and Warehousing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2001/09/01
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:39d0ea91eb31b9929a602b983070045fb9dfcc4a53e99a1bfb2423da82d912170737ca362330b3dd4d1775ef5965f0465d5381a02e0cce49213aaa510466bbc9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166516/cdc_166516_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 584.44 KB ]