Fatality Narrative: Truck Driver Hauling Grain Dies When Truck Crashes

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Washington (State). Department of Labor and Industries
• Description:
  In August of 2016, the 55-year-old driver of a grain truck died when his truck's brakes were unable to slow the truck and it left the road and crashed into a building. The victim was employed to help during the harvest of wheat on a family member's farm. He was being paid for his work. He had over 25 years experience driving commercial vehicles. The truck, manufactured in 1988, was purchased by the employer the previous year. For the past three weeks, he had been working 10 to 11 hours per day, 6 days per week. The victim primarily made his living as a pastor in the local community. He also drove a school bus and worked as an on-call fireman. During previous harvests, he had worked for other farmers in the area and had driven many types of trucks. He had a valid CDL. On the day of the incident, his last before he went on vacation, he was driving a tandem-axle grain truck pulling a pup trailer, both fully loaded with wheat. This vehicle was used only during the harvest. According to the employer, before being put into service for the harvest, the truck had been checked and everything was adjusted properly. He was on the way to a nearby town to make a delivery to a grain elevator. He had made many trips with full loads to this elevator, including one earlier in the day. As he was driving along a state highway carrying approximately 60,000 lbs of wheat, he started down a long hill on the outskirts of town. The brakes were insufficient to slow the truck's descent. Attempting to slow down the truck, he used the Jake brake, downshifted, and applied what little brakes he had. As the truck entered the town a witness estimated that it was travelling at about 50 mph. The truck left the road, entered a dirt covered lot and then crashed into the grain elevator's scale house where he was to make his delivery. The victim died at the scene. Investigators determined that the brakes had been in disrepair for some time and that out of twelve brakes, only four were working properly. According to State Patrol, as the victim downshifted while descending the hill he likely missed a gear and was unable to get the transmission back into gear; this caused the truck to gather speed. The four remaining functional brakes were not sufficient to stop the truck. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Accident Prevention
  • Accidents
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Automobiles
  • Mortality
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
  • Workplace
• Keywords:
  • Workers
  • Work environment
  • Trucking
  • Truck drivers
  • Motor vehicles
  • Haulage
  • Haulage vehicles
  • Equipment operation
  • Equipment maintenance
  • Equipment reliability
  More +
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20051395
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 71-157-2017, 2017 Apr; :1
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Fatality narrative: truck driver hauling grain dies when truck crashes
• End Date:
  20260630
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/228725/cdc_228725_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 330.55 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a93603adf4393e43ece2e1e4239f77d405442654005dea4c950c98ac6bb421b5529c39aec01624dd59c32786ca57e9abe8e2ed23030946d85b3a05c5f6f28a96