Forklift Operator Dies After Backing his Forklift Off a Loading Dock

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bost, Patrick ; Bresnitz, Eddy A. ; Gerwel, Barbara ; Ludwig, Gary ; O'Hagan, Emily ; Schill, Donald P. ; Valiante, David J.
• Corporate Authors:
  New Jersey Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Project (NJ FACE) ; New Jersey. Department of Health and Senior Services. Occupational Health Service
• Description:
  On August 30, 2002, a 39-year-old male forklift operator was fatally injured when he was crushed under a fallen forklift. The victim was a full-time forklift operator at a company that manufactured wooden pallets. At 2:48 p.m., the victim was using an 8,600-pound forklift to move waste material into a large, drive-in waste dumpster positioned at the company's outdoor loading dock. The victim had apparently just dumped the waste and was backing out of the dumpster when he backed off the side of the loading dock, falling 3 feet 9 inches to the asphalt. He was partly thrown from the forklift and was crushed under the lift's rollover cage. He was taken by helicopter to the area trauma center where he was admitted with injuries to his hip and leg. Despite treatment, he suffered complications related to his injury and his condition deteriorated. The victim died at the hospital on September 9, 2002, nine days after the incident. NJ FACE investigators recommend following these safety guidelines to prevent further incidents: 1. Employers should ensure that employees are fully trained and certified as per OSHA regulations before operating a forklift truck. 2. Operators should always wear a seatbelt while running a forklift or other industrial truck. 3. Employers should provide safety curbs and railings around the perimeter of outdoor loading docks. 4. Employers should conduct a job hazard analysis of all work activities with the participation of the workers.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Occupational Health Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 2 Safety-belts Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-operations Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE02NJ081
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  10 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026724
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2010-112437
• 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 02NJ081, 2003 Aug ; :1-10
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• Performing Organization:
  New Jersey Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1991/09/30
• End Date:
  2005/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:78854dc38a5ae3eacb998f8a20a765f220b3d9e5a1990ca595bdfd8b4676ef6c6a2d564938c186e99cdb38caa936c1a0c5c3d1279be1406db77de170e88cf8e6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169221/cdc_169221_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 226.32 KB ]