Construction Fatality Narrative: Laborer Climbing Scaffold Cross Braces Falls 25 Feet [2022-10]

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Washington (State). Department of Labor and Industries
• Description:
  Around midnight on July 29, 2019, a 45-year-old semi-truck driver was fatally crushed by his woodchip truck when it rolled away. The driver was at a sawmill in Washington State picking up woodchips for delivery to a pulp mill in British Columbia. After loading the chips, he parked his truck on a paved road under a fall protection tarping station. The road had a 2% downgrade. The driver did not set the truck's parking brake before exiting the cab to access the top of the trailer to prepare his load for tarping. While the driver was walking on top of his load near the back of his trailer, his truck began to roll forward. He ran toward a ladder at the front of the trailer that went down to a walkway behind the tractor. While trying to descend the ladder, he went over the edge of his trailer and fell to the road. The only other driver at the mill left the site without seeing the incident. Almost two hours later, another truck driver entered the site and found the driver fatally crushed under his tractor's left front drive wheels. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS: Key contributing factors identified in this investigation include: Uneven road grade at truck tarping station area. Parking brake rules in Accident Prevention Program (APP) not followed. Inadequate truck parking brake and wheel chocking policy in APP. Insufficient safety audits of drivers and customer worksites located abroad. RECOMMENDATIONS: Washington FACE investigators concluded that, to help prevent similar occurrences, employers should: Install electronic parking brake systems that automatically apply the parking brake when the driver has not set it before exiting the cab. Develop APP to have a parking brake and wheel chocking policy with strict requirements for preventing rollaways and unsafe responses. Collaborate with owners of remote customer sites outside of their ordinary daily travel range to ensure the sites are safe for their drivers. Assist safety supervisors to obtain work visas or hire safety consultants abroad to do safety audits at customer sites in other countries. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Mortality Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Accident Prevention Equipment Operation Equipment Operators Fatalities Mechanics Safety Education Safety Practices Training Truck Drivers Trucking 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:
  Case Studies
• 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:
  1-22
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20066291
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 52-52-2022 (revised) 2022 Oct; :1-22
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Driver crushed by rollaway woodchip truck
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:13efb800220262547b6fa848993478b45634d7482eea0987d22987196d5c73d4dd903ce9bd67435e69074b0753a7f72f7a1f230c5672706a04ab126f3dcf1d58
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/229129/cdc_229129_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.45 MB ]