Equipment Operator Killed After Backing a Forklift Into an Excavation

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  New Jersey Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Project (NJ FACE) ; New Jersey. Department of Health and Senior Services. Occupational Health Service
• Description:
  On October 20, 1998, a 40-year-old equipment operator for a power company was killed when she backed a forklift into a trench covered with plywood. The incident occurred at a company building that was being partly torn down to make way for a new highway. A storeroom in the building had been cleared, leaving three pallets of material staged outside the building which the victim was going to remove. She arrived on site and asked a company construction coordinator about the pallets and a forklift. The coordinator (who was not aware of the trench) directed her to a forklift on the loading dock. Behind the forklift was a five-foot wide, four-foot-deep trench that had been dug across the loading dock a few hours earlier and covered with large sheets of plywood. The victim walked through the building to the loading dock, crossing a barrier of yellow tape but not over the plywood. She apparently did not realize that the plywood covered a trench as she backed the forklift across the loading dock. The lift broke through the plywood and fell backwards into the trench, crushing the victim when the impact bent the forklift's cage support into the steering wheel. NJ FACE investigators concluded that, to prevent similar incidents in the future, these safety guidelines should be followed: 1. Site owners and contractors should have a formal agreement to control access to construction areas. 2. Construction contractors should ensure that excavations are clearly marked and/or properly guarded. 3. Site owners and contractors should ensure that all unnecessary equipment is removed from site before starting construction.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Construction Construction-equipment Construction-industry Construction-workers Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention Occupational-accidents Occupational-hazards OSHA Region 2 Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Traumatic-injuries Warning-signs Work-analysis Work-environment Work-operations Work-practices

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• 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/NIOSHSFACE98NJ094
• 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:
  7 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026690
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2013-100202
• 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 98NJ094, 1999 Apr ; :1-7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1999
• Performing Organization:
  New Jersey Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (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-512:8aec5cd44624325cf0844de1d93bb4d79202fcdf3b1aea0c109b1a20744a7ac29ae8179442cc31fb2d615c0ad9f486f0d49412615d42bd41b82251b2f2337e9d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169243/cdc_169243_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 65.46 KB ]