OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #686469
HEAD,CRUSHED,INDUSTRIAL TRUCK,FALLING OBJECT,UNSTABLE LOAD
Event description
STRUCK BY FALLING FORKLIFT LOAD
Investigation abstract
TWO EMPLOYEES HAD TRANSFERED A BUNDLE OF STEEL TUBING (24 FEET LONG, 18 INCHES S LOAD STARTED TO ROLL OFF THE FORKS. THE OPERATOR HOLLERED, BUT THE EMPLOYEE DIDN 'T HAVE TIME TO MOVE BEFORE ONE END OF THE BUNDLE SEEMED TO FLIP TOWARD HIM. HIS HEAD WAS CRUSHED BETWEEN THE BUNDLE AND A HEAVY ANGLE IRON GUARD RAIL. THE BUND LE HAD BEEN DROPPED PREVIOUSLY, CAUSING SOME ROUNDED EDGES. THIS MAY HAVE HELPED THE LOAD ROLL OFF THE FORKS. ONE END ROLLED OFF FIRST, CAUSING THE OTHER END TO FLIP. QUARE AND WEIGHING 2,500 POUNDS), WHICH HAD BEEN LOADED ONTO TWO TOW CARTS, FROM THE RECEIVING AREA TO THE MANUFACTURING AREA. THEY WERE GOING TO SET THE LOAD O N THE FLOOR, USING AS FORKLIFT. THEY HAD PLACED WOODEN BLOCKS ON THE FLOOR TO HO LD THE LOAD. ONE EMPLOYEE, THE FORKLIFT OPERATOR, MADE 3 PICKS AT THE LOAD BEFOR E GETTING IT BALANCED. HE THEN RAISED THE LOAD OFF THE TOW CART AND APPROXIMATEL Y 6 FEET INTO THE AIR. THE OTHER EMPLOYEE MOVED THE CARTS OUT FROM UNDER THE LOA D. HE NOTICED THAT ONE OF THE WOODEN BLOCKS WAS OUT OF PLACE. HE WENT TO STRAIGH TEN THE BLOCK, KNEELING ABOUT 6 FEET FROM THE FORKLIFT WITH HIS BACK TO IT. THE
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 26 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 27
- Occupation code
- 633
- Human factor
- 14
- Environmental factor
- 5
- 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.