OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14346548
HARGRAVES TREE SURGEONS INC.
FORT MEADE, FL·
Event description
Employee killed when ejected from collapsing aerial lift
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was in a model #1045A Skyworker aerial lift bucket about 30 feet abo ted, causing it to become almost totally unthreaded (about 1/4 inch of thread re mained of a total of approximately 2 inches). ve the ground, trimming trees. The boom apparatus was extended; the lower boom w as positioned straight up and down; and the upper boom was extended almost compl etely out the left side of the truck. When the boom fell its midpoint landed on telephone cables that were approximately 10 feet above the ground. During the bo om's rapid descent, Employee #1. who was not tied off in the bucket, was ejected and killed. An investigation revealed that the threaded lower end of the piston for the lift's lower boom drive cylinder had broken cleanly. The boom was suppo rted for a period of time, but as the cylinder went up and down, the piston rota
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 56 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 1
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 24
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 14
- Environmental factor
- 18
- Task assigned
- 1
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