Bulldozer Owner / Operator Drowns While Trying to Repair a Pond

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Kentucky Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (KY FACE) ; University of Kentucky. College of Public Health. Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center
• Description:
  The Kentucky Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation program was notified July 31, 2003, via newspaper surveillance, of an occupational fatality involving a 55-year-old bulldozer owner/operator. On July 29, 2003, a bulldozer owner/operator drowned in the cab of his machine as he was trying to find a leak in a pond dam. The operator had been hired by a local farm owner to find and repair a leak in one of the ponds on her farm. As the operator dug a trench through the earthen dam, a section at the top collapsed sending sludge into the trench. The water/sludge mixture filled the cab of the bulldozer, trapping the operator inside. When the owner/operator did not return home as expected, his wife called the pond owner. The pond owner and the operator's wife searched the pond area for the bulldozer operator. They found the water-filled trench next to the pond, but not the bulldozer or the operator. Emergency medical services (EMS) were called to the pond. After arriving at the scene, EMS contacted a diver who then found the bulldozer submerged in the water with the decedent inside. The coroner stated the cause of death as due to drowning. 1. Ponds should be drained down before repairs begin. 2. Bulldozer owner/operators should follow Occupational Safety and Health safety guidelines. 3. Bulldozer operators should leave themselves an escape route when working in dangerous spaces.
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Agriculture Occupational Health Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Agricultural-workers Author Keywords: Bulldozer Dam Equipment-design Equipment-operators Equipment-reliability Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 4 Owner / Operator Pond Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Sludge Traumatic-injuries Trench Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Agriculture ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Farming ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE03KY073
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Kentucky ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  9 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026435
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2012-114014
• 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 03KY073, 2003 Sep ; :1-9
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• Performing Organization:
  Kentucky Department of Health Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1993/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:84eda4c0a0316c5f17e2e9fa2e42c4a90b7bbdbf1a2c1921c5a8bb54ce94520d83db40702a4ecd4d594d8c3995acd28803ca5c2f472796692eb5403bbc38bb1c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/170152/cdc_170152_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 774.64 KB ]