Fatality Narrative: Trucking Supervisor Crushed Between Two Belly Dump Trailers

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Washington (State). Department of Labor and Industries
• Description:
  A 60-year-old construction company trucking operations supervisor was crushed while assisting a truck driver coupling a belly dump trailer to his truck when the trailer shifted. The victim was an experienced truck driver and a trucking supervisor who had been with his employer, a heavy civil construction company, for 27 years. On a rainy day shortly before 7 a.m., he was assisting a company truck driver who was unable to raise the landing legs of his belly dump trailer, also known as a bottom dump trailer. The driver had driven trucks for 34 years, but this was his first day pulling a belly dump trailer and he was unfamiliar with its operational features. The landing legs supported the weight of the trailer on the pavement and needed to be raised for the truck to be able to couple with the trailer properly. The driver unsuccessfully attempted to pull the pin locking the legs in the down position. He had backed his truck toward the trailer and heard a sound that he believed indicated that the truck's 5th wheel's jaws had closed and locked onto the belly dump trailer's kingpin, but he did not visually confirm the coupling had occurred. The victim determined that the truck's back was not elevated high enough to relieve the weight of the trailer so that the safety pins could be removed and the landing legs raised. He placed boards behind the truck's rear tires with the intention of having the truck back onto the boards to raise it. The victim was standing towards the rear of the truck in a narrow space between two trailers where the driver could not clearly see him. He told the driver to unlock the 5th wheel slide, which he did from the cab. He then told him to move the truck forward to allow the truck some movement before backing onto the boards. As the truck moved forward, the kingpin, which was not properly secured, came loose from the 5th wheel jaws and slid across the 5th wheel plate, causing the trailer to shift sideways, crushing the victim between the fenders of the two belly dump trailers. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Automobiles Construction Industry Construction Materials Education Mortality Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Staff Development Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident Prevention Construction Construction Equipment Construction Materials Construction Workers Drivers Equipment Maintenance Equipment Operation Equipment Operators Equipment Reliability Fatalities Hazards Motor Vehicles Protective Equipment Protective Measures Safety Education Safety Equipment Safety Measures Safety Practices Training Traumatic Injuries Truck Drivers Trucking Work Environment Workers Worker Safety

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• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Publisher:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• 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:20052052
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 71-172-2018, 2018 :Jun; :1
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2018
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Fatality narrative: trucking supervisor crushed between two belly dump trailers
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:92498cbccffd45dc4099098e36f625d9f18e7390d6fa006e4cc2bd364f5e5a8a0e17c453da43ee4e5efda86a4d36a42c29ccb9a6f7e219fb2788e089646f5ab2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/228873/cdc_228873_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 585.94 KB ]