Penn Mechanical Group, Inc.

Employees were working to remove a blow-out preventer (BOP) by dragging it with a tandem bed truck on the BOP skid from between two rig subs during rig-down operations. An employee was spotting the BOP skid as it was being pulled out by a tandem bed truck so it did not contact the rig sub's cylinders. He was standing on each side of the BOP skid directly beside the gas well cellar that the BOP had been removed from in order to watch the skid pass the cylinders and communicate with the bed truck operator as he pulled the skid away from the spotters. At the time, the well cellar guards had been removed from around the BOP, as is required to disconnect the BOP and lay it over on the skid. The employee stepped back into the cellar opening and fell 4 feet down onto a metal work platform and toe board, resulting in a broken collar bone, broken ribs, and a punctured lung.