OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221692353

COUGLE'S RECYCLING, INC.

AUBURN, PA— 2024-08-13T00:00:00

Event: Blunt force, Blunt force trauma, Caught Between, Caught By, Caught In, Crushed, Dumpster, Forklift, Guard, Head, Hopper, Mast, Reaching, Trapped
NAICS: 562920
Inspection type: Federal Agency
Activity number: #347686594
Employer profile: COUGLE'S RECYCLING, INC.
Summary number: 221692353
Report ID: 0317700

Event description

Employee is killed when crushed by forklift mast

Investigation abstract

At 4:00 p.m. on August 13, 2024, Employee #1 was emptying a three-yard hopper into a 30-yard dumpster using a V-mast (low-mast) forklift. While reaching through the front opening of the forklift's overhead guard frame and mast to access the chain release for dumping the hopper, Employee #1's leg(s) became caught on the controls. This caused the forklift mast to lower, trapping Employee #1's head between the stationary inner and mobile outer parts of the mast. The employee sustained fatal head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 57 M

Event type
1

Occupation code
519

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.