Warehouseman dies when crushed by forklift in California

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  California Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (CA/FACE) ; California. Department of Health Services. Occupational Health Branch
• Description:
  A 21-year-old male warehouseman (victim) died after being crushed between a forklift and the edge of the floor of a railroad boxcar. The victim was attempting to attach a chain to the boxcar door to pull it closed with the forklift. He was standing on the ground between the loading dock and the boxcar. The victim had parked the forklift on or very near the boxcar loading dock without setting the parking brake. As the victim was in the process of attaching the chain, the forklift rolled backward across the dock and fell partially over it with the rear of the forklift pinning the victim against the side of the boxcar. The wheels of the forklift had not been chocked nor had the forks been fully lowered. The victim was not trained nor certified to operate a forklift. The CA/FACE investigator concluded that, in order to prevent future occurrences, employers should: 1. Ensure that forklift operators, when dismounting, always set the parking brake, lower the forks/mast, and neutralize the controls when the forklift is attended (i.e. running forklift within 25 feet and in view of the operator). 2. Closely supervise new employees until properly trained and evaluated for all job tasks. 3. Disallow the practice of operators standing between a forklift pointing in a direction it normally travels and fixed objects when the forklift is on an incline. Additionally, manufacturers should: 4. Design and build all forklifts so that the parking brake is automatically set when the operator gets out of the seat.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Equipment-design Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 9 Protective-equipment Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Training Traumatic-injuries Warehousing Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Manufacturing ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE96CA016
• 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:20027130
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2007-112041
• 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 96CA016, 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-512:189f1446bef531ecdb14baa965dff0402af7abc65c57535d16ee32ee593e75deb26751cd50a84fe67823397ad6d489f9b915118b89fc1788fb27855f950e95a2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/168997/cdc_168997_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 19.73 KB ]