Sixteen-Year-Old Laborer At a Building Supply Center Crushed by Forklift That Tipped Over - Ohio

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  On December 22, 1999, a 16-year-old male part-time laborer (the victim) suffered fatal crushing injuries when the forklift he had been operating tipped over. The youth had been operating the forklift to transport an empty pallet from a building supply center warehouse to an outside storage yard. As he turned from an asphalt paved alley onto the gravel-surfaced storage yard, the forklift tipped to the outside of the turn. The youth, who was not wearing the forklift's seat belt, either jumped or was thrown from the operator's seat. The forklift tipped over on its side and he was pinned to the ground by the overhead guard. A short time later, one of the building supply center's co-managers saw the forklift lying on its side in the supply yard and went to check on the victim. He found the victim under the machine and went to another store located across the alley for help. One of the workers in the store, who was an emergency medical technician (EMT), immediately went to the victim to render assistance while a second worker called 911. Emergency rescue personnel arrived within 8 minutes of notification. The victim was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. NIOSH investigators concluded that, to help prevent similar occurrences, employers should: 1) ensure that forklifts are operated only by authorized employees who have been specifically trained to use safe operating procedures and to recognize the hazards of improper operation
  
  2) ensure that operators of sit-down forklifts use the seatbelts provided as part of the operator protection system
  
  3) comply with child labor laws prohibiting youth less than 18 years of age from operating power-driven hoisting apparatus such as forklifts. In addition
  
  4) government agencies should increase efforts to inform the public about child labor laws.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident Prevention Equipment Operators Occupational Hazards Occupational Safety Programs OSHA Region 5 Safety Belts Safety Education Safety Measures Safety Practices Safety Programs Traumatic Injuries

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Machine (All) ; Machine - General ; Youth ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE200009
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  6 pages
• Contributor:
  Moore, Paul H.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20021150
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2005-101089
• Citation:
  Morgantown, : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2000
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  44-45 - Retail Trade - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1999/12/22
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ee5b72275a136d262630519e529320c5092db838f40783c4983be0a2d3aa1053f1f38622a0a97774f22201914deb753118aa1233c223d55ce96c5e0b7780078a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167374/cdc_167374_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 297.42 KB ]