OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14198857
MAINTENANCE,CLEANING,JAMMED,INDUSTRIAL TRUCK,FALL,ELEVATED WORK PLAT
Event description
EMPLOYEE INJURED IN FALL FROM PLATFORM ELEVATED BY FORKLIFT
Investigation abstract
TWO EMPLOYEES WERE CLEANING THE SUPPORTING POLES OF AN AMUSEMENT RIDE SO THAT IT HE FORKLIFT OPERATOR TO LOWER HIM TO GROUND LEVEL. THE OPERATOR PUSHED THE APPRO PRIATE LEVEL FORWARD, SO THAT THE PLATFORM WOULD DESCEND. IT STARTED DESCENDING, THEN STOPPED ABOUT 9 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND. THE OPERATOR MAINTAINED FORWARD PRE SSURE ON THE LEVER, NOT NOTICING THAT THE PLATFORM HAD STOPPED DESCENDING. THIS CAUSED ALL PRESSURE IN THE HYDRAULIC CYLINDER TO BE RELIEVED. AS SOON AS EMPLOYE E #1 WALKED TO THE CENTER OF THE PLATFORM, THE LOAD WAS THEN CENTERED OVER THE F ORKS AND THE FORK UNJAMMED. THE PLATFORM FREEFELL TO THE GROUND, EMPLOYEE #1 WIT H IT. HE SUFFERED A CRUSHED LEFT HEEL AND A BROKEN RIGHT LEG AS A RESULT OF THE FALL. THE COMPANY ONLY LUBRICATES THIS FORKLIFT TWICE A YEAR, AND IT WAS IN NEED OF LUBRICATION WHEN THE PLATFORM JAMMED. FAILURE TO LUBRICATE WAS A CONTRIBUTIN COULD LATER BE PAINTED. ONE OF THE EMPLOYEES WAS OPERATING A CASE 4000 POUND CA G FACTOR TO THIS ACCIDENT. PACITY FORKLIFT TRUCK AND THE OTHER (EMPLOYEE #1) WAS STEAM CLEANING THE SUPPORT ING POLES WHILE STANDING ON A 4 BY 8 FOOT PLATFORM ELEVATED ON THE FORKS OF THE FORKLIFT TRUCK. THE PLATFORM AND EMPLOYEE WOULD BE ELEVATED AS FAR AS THE FORKLI FT COULD SAFELY EXTEND (ABOUT 28 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL), THEN THE EMPLOYEE WOU LD CLEAN A SECTION OF POLE. HE WOULD THEN SIGNAL THE FORKLIFT OPERATOR WHEN HE W AS READY TO DESCEND. EVENTUALLY EMPLOYEE #1 WAS CLEANING A SECTION APPROXIMATELY 10 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. WHEN HE FINISHED CLEANING THE SECTION HE SIGNALED T
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 60 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 18
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 42
- Occupation code
- 889
- Human factor
- 14
- Environmental factor
- 18
- Task assigned
- 1
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.