Fatality Narrative: Operator Dies When Orchard Tractor Rolls down Embankment

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Washington (State). Department of Labor and Industries
• Description:
  A 28-year-old worker died when the orchard tractor he was operating with an attached sprayer went down an embankment and rolled over. He had worked as a tractor operator for three months at the apple orchard and had completed the employer's tractor training program. On the day of the incident, he was applying insecticide to trees at the orchard. The tractor was a low profile, narrow chassis orchard/vineyard type tractor. Its wheel track was four feet wide. The sprayer contained an estimated 350 gallons (approximately 2800lbs.) of insecticide solution. He started his shift at 12 midnight. He and other members of the spray crew met with their supervisor who explained their duties for that shift. He and another tractor operator were working as a team spraying trees in a block he had sprayed multiple times over the past several months. The trees in this block were mature with a full canopy. Because of this, the area was exempt from the Washington State rollover protective structure (ROPS) requirement, as use of ROPS would have interfered with normal operations. Both operators had their tractor ROPS in the down position and their headlights on. At about five a.m., the operator's coworker went ahead down a sloping orchard row and then turned onto a dirt service road to go to another area. Shortly after, the coworker looked behind and did not see the lights of the operator's tractor so he turned around to look for him. He found the operator's tractor at the bottom of a 6-foot embankment. It had left the service road a few yards from the orchard row and rolled down the embankment. The operator was lying next to the tractor. He died from a skull fracture due to blunt force trauma. Investigators concluded that the operator had most likely misjudged the turning distance of the tractor and steered too wide as he came out of the row onto the road. The weight of the tractor and sprayer caused the edge of the road to crumble, leading it to roll down the embankment. In addition, the lighting near daybreak may have affected his visibility of the embankment at the edge of the road. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Agriculture
  • Insecticides
  • Mortality
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
  • Staff Development
• Keywords:
  • Tractors
  • Accidents
  • Injuries
  • Fatalities
  • Agricultural
  • Agricultural machinery
  • Agricultural workers
  • Agriculture
  • Equipment operation
  • Equipment operators
  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:20058519
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 71-191-2020, 2020 Feb; :1
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Fatality narrative: operator dies when orchard tractor rolls down embankment
• End Date:
  20260630
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/228930/cdc_228930_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 270.47 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:671458ed9f2c449c3369f6581ce11fd711be50d8ee9307fce199a0155aded7bbca0162c7dd0aad2a2abb404b0f6ee25ecaa15febbbfeb849c14c6450e30eec75