OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14224380

COLUMBIA-WHITTLE CORP.

CHATHAM, VA· 1988-01-18T00:00:00

Event: HEAD, WORK RULES, OVERLOADED, BROKEN WELD, OVERHEAD GUARD, INDUSTRIAL TRUCK, FALLING OBJECT
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Accident-driven
Activity number: #18741082
Employer profile: COLUMBIA-WHITTLE CORP.
Summary number: 14224380
Report ID: 355117

Event description

FORKLIFT KILLED BY LOAD FALLING FROM FORKS ONTO HIS HEAD

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 WAS OPERATING A FORKLIFT TRUCK IN THE WAREHOUSE. HE PICKED UP THREE BUNDLES OF PLYWOOD CORE WEIGHING APPROXIMATELY 12,00 POUNDS. THE FORKLIFT'S MAXI MUN LIFTING CAPACITY WAS ONLY 8,000 POUNDS. WHEN EMPLOYEE #1 TIPPED THE LOAD BAC K TOWARDS THE OVERHEAD GUARD THE TOP BUNDLE FELL OFF THE FORKS ONTO THE OVERHEAD GUARD. THE FORCE OF THE IMPACT BROKE A WELD ON THE OVERHEAD GUARD AND CRUSHED I T DOWNWARD ONTO EMPLOYEE #1'S HEAD. HE WAS KILLED INSTANTLY.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 33 M

Nature of injury
12

Part of body
13

Event type
1

Source
27

Occupation code
856

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
6

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.