104,543Records 70,659Employers 84,666Hospitalizations 27,563Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-09-30
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14470454

IND TRK OPERATOR,SUFFOCATED,PINNED,WORK RULES,LOAD SHIFT,INDUSTRIAL TRUCK,SEAT BELT,NECK,OFF LOADING,OVERTURN

Event
IND TRK OPERATOR,SUFFOCATED,PINNED,WORK RULES,LOAD SHIFT,INDUSTRIAL TRUCK,SEAT BELT,NECK,OFF LOADING,OVERTURN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14470454
Report ID
316700

Event description

Employee killed when forklift overturns

Investigation abstract

Employee #1, a lumberyard worker, was using a forklift to unload three bundles o f 14 and 16 ft long pine boards from a flatbed semi-trailer. As Employee #1 back ed the raised load away from the trailer, the load slipped off the left-hand sid e of the forks and pushed the forklift over toward the right-hand side. Employee #1 jumped off the overturning forklift but was pinned by the overhead guard, wh ich caught him behind the neck. He died of suffocation. The coroner's report ind icated no major broken bones other than front facial bones. The forklift had a 5 ,000 lb capacity and the marks on the lumber indicated that the 3,560 lb load wa s centered. This was verified by the truck driver, who was the only witness.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 26 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    9
    Event type
    2
    Source
    27
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    8
    Environmental factor
    8
    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.