Operator dies when his front-end loader falls into an excavation and crushes him in California

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  California Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (CA/FACE) ; California. Department of Health Services. Occupational Health Branch
• Description:
  A 61-year-old male front-end loader operator (victim) died after being crushed by his loader. The front-end loader, which was equipped with a rollover protective structure (ROPS), was being used to move construction materials for recycling. The victim, who had not used the front-end loader before, had picked up a load of metal and was moving it to a large dumpster. When positioning the loader near the dumpster, the victim backed it too close to the edge of a 15-foot-deep excavation which was used as a ramp for loading materials into trucks. When the loader began to fall into the trench, witnesses observed him trying to jump from the cab into the clear. The operator fell into the bottom of the excavation and the loader fell on top of him. The operator had not been wearing his seatbelt before he jumped out of the cab. There was no operator manual in the cab and the company did not provide any training for the victim on the operation of the front-end loader. The CA/FACE investigator concluded that, in order to prevent future occurrences, employers should: 1. Assure that ROPS equipped-backhoe operators stay in their machines, with their seatbelts fastened, when the backhoe may be in danger of falling or rolling over. 2. Assign an employee to traffic control where moving machinery must operate in confined areas. 3. Delineate the perimeter of excavations in areas where moving machinery must operate. 4. Train employees, including periodic refresher training, in the operation of machinery before they use it on the job. 5. Perform an initial hazard assessment of the job prior to beginning work. Additionally, manufacturers should: 6. Install seatbelt interlocks so that machines of this type cannot be started or operated without the seatbelt properly fastened.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Construction Materials Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Construction Construction-equipment Construction-materials Construction-workers Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 9 Protective-equipment Protective-measures Safety-belts Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Training Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Machine (All) ; Machine - General ; Prevention through Design (PtD) ; Waste Management and Remediation Services
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE96CA010
• 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:20027122
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2007-112035
• 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 96CA010, 1997 Jan ; :1-7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1997
• Performing Organization:
  California Department of Health Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  56 - Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services - (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-512:91b71af6dee19bb482c9ccbcf1c24032e1c1eed236a26ea35c78cb3b240e8efe3b01c7b72ee9b104d80d3b25c0e7100010df66787ef65e9a6db4a655146ad66c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169003/cdc_169003_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 21.77 KB ]