OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #607820
HEAD,WORK RULES,OVERHEAD GUARD,CRUSHED,INDUSTRIAL TRUCK,INEXPERIENCE,UNTRAINED,OVERTURN
Event description
EMPLOYEE CRUSHED TO DEATH WHEN FORKLIFT OVERTURNED ONTO HER
Investigation abstract
AT 2 PM ON JULY 8, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS DRIVING AN ALLIS-CHALMERS FORKLIFT DOWN EES HAD NOT BEEN TRAINED IN THE SAFE OPERATION OF FORKLIFTS. EMPLOYEES WERE PERM ITTED TO RIDE ON THE FORKS AND THE SIDES OF THE FORKLIFTS. THE NAMEPLATE WAS NOT IN PLACE. THE HORN WAS INOPERABLE. THE GUAGES DID NOT WORK AND THE CLUTCH PEDAL DID NOT HAVE A NON-SLIP PAD. A RAMP INTO A PARKING AREA. IT WAS HER SECOND DAY ON THE JOB. THE RAMP WAS 33 I NCHES HIGH AND 10 FEET, 4 INCHES LONG. APPROXIMATELY 35 FEET FROM THE END OF THE RAMP WAS A PARKED TRACTOR-TRAILER TRUCK. ANOTHER EMPLOYEE WAS SITTING ON THE LE FT FORK OF THE FORKLIFT WHILE IT WAS BEING DRIVEN DOWN THE RAMP. THE LIFT PICKED UP SPEED. EMPLOYEE #1 APPARENTLY PANICKED, THINKING SHE MIGHT HIT THE TRACTOR-T RAILER. SHE TURNED THE FORKLIFT HARD TO THE RIGHT, CAUSING IT TO OVERTURN ONTO I TS LEFT SIDE. EMPLOYEE #1'S HEAD WAS CRUSHED BETWEEN THE GROUND AND THE OVERHEAD GUARD. THE EMPLOYEE WHO WAS RIDING ON THE LEFT FORK WAS NOT INJURED. THE EMPLOY
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 30 F
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 27
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 14
- 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.