Operating engineer is crushed by a backhoe attachment when it disconnects from its tractor in California

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  California Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (CA/FACE) ; California. Department of Health Services. Occupational Health Branch
• Description:
  A 25-year-old operating engineer (decedent) died when he was crushed between the grab bar of a backhoe attachment and the Roll Over Protective Structure (ROPS) of a skid steer loader (small tractor). When the backhoe attachment disconnected during a test of the equipment, the decedent was thrown forward onto the left side operating stick. Pushing this stick forward caused the boom to move down and the attachment to come further into the cab of the tractor. The left side grab bar pinned the decedent against the ROPS, crushing his chest. The CA/FACE investigator concluded that, in order to prevent future occurrences, employers should: 1. develop written instructions for investigating equipment problems. 2. establish and implement company equipment inspection procedures that focus on the safety of the equipment. 3. Additionally, manufacturers should provide instructions to the maintenance department of their dealerships for determining the safe wear tolerances of attachment connections.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Maintenance Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention Maintenance-workers Occupational-safety-programs OSHA Region 9 Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Training Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Hispanic ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Construction
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE97CA008
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  7 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20027153
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2007-112048
• 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 97CA008, 1997 Jun ; :1-7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1997
• Performing Organization:
  California Department of Health Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  48-49 - Transportation and Warehousing - (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-512:8911d3c33b1d425e7e9d5d274e1eb917fd2f090612930d68060070bb0fc490644df45ef0e1d4f827a10028d61cfc819b4822e1c772ec4ea910834c4402989452
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/168990/cdc_168990_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 18.08 KB ]