State Worker Fatally Injured While Operating a Bulldozer at a State Mental Health Facility - Massachusetts

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Massachusetts Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Project (Massachusetts FACE) ; Massachusetts. Department of Public Health
• Description:
  On December 29, 2000, a 37-year-old male equipment operator was fatally injured when he was run over by the bulldozer he was operating at a state mental health facility. While moving the bulldozer into the blacksmith shop, the victim slowed or stopped the bulldozer and climbed out of the bulldozer's operator area. Once standing on the ground, the victim tried to climb back into the operator's seat when he became caught on the bulldozer track and was run over. Two co-workers in the immediate area placed a call for emergency assistance and then went to assist the victim. The campus police were on the scene within minutes along with an ambulance, which transported the victim to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead approximately six hours later. The Massachusetts FACE Program concluded that to prevent similar occurrences in the future, employers, including state facilities, that utilize bulldozers should: 1. Train all bulldozer operators on health and safety aspects of the equipment including proper steps to follow when stopping and exiting the bulldozer. 2. Develop, implement and enforce a comprehensive health and safety program that includes but is not limited to procedures for entering, exiting and stopping bulldozers In addition, all states without state OSHA plans should: 3. Explore options to ensure that state and municipal workers are provided with the same health and safety protection as their private sector counterparts. Also, crawler bulldozer manufacturers should: 4. Consider equipment engineering design changes, such as developing a step to prevent the operator from stepping on the track while entering or exiting the bulldozer cab.
• Subjects:
  • Accident Prevention
  • Accidents
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Construction Industry
  • Health Promotion
  • Occupational Health
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Safety
  • Safety Management
  • Staff Development
  More +
• Keywords:
  • OSHA Region 1
  • Accident-analysis
  • Accident-prevention
  • Accidents
  • Injuries
  • Injury-prevention
  • Traumatic-injuries
  • Work-operations
  • Work-analysis
  • Work-areas
  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Machine (All) ; Machine - General ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE00MA069
• 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:
  1-10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028508
• 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 00MA069, 2002 Sep ; :1-7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• Performing Organization:
  Massachusetts Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  62 - Health Care and Social Assistance - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1992/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Resource Number:
  FACE-00MA069
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166588/cdc_166588_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 213.88 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:603dbf2a90035c81a0afdaa7773bcc3f3a403401e9dec3234128c08827c14c8a9516d57093b33bc1eb1a08c8d90d0f8fc29db4c2bd2ec0913c17ef6412ad9f3f