Wood fabricating assembler died after being crushed by a wooden flange in California.
Authors
Public Health Institute
Source
Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 95CA005, 1995 Dec; :1-3
A 42-year-old male, Hispanic wood fabricating assembler (the victim) died when a wooden flange he was attempting to roll to an assembly rack (jig) fell over and crushed him. The flange was 92" in diameter and weighed approximately 350 pounds. It was being rolled manually 25 feet to the assembly area where it was to become part of a reel or spool used to store wire. The victim's employer stated that rolling flanges was the typical method used to move them from the entrance way to the jig. The employer also stated that the victim was familiar with the hazards involved in rolling the flange. The concrete surface on which the flange was being rolled was flat, but was wet from recent rains. Though there were no witnesses to the incident, a co-worker in the general vicinity heard a loud noise when the flange fell to the ground. He ran to see what had happened and discovered the victim underneath the flange. The co-worker lifted the flange from the victim's head and summoned emergency services to the scene. Fire department paramedics arrived in approximately 5 minutes and transported the victim to a community hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The CA/FACE investigator concluded that in order to prevent similar future occurrences, employers should: 1. evaluate their manual materials handling procedures assuring that safe methods are used. 2. conduct job safety analyses on all tasks in order to identify potential hazards before initiating and continuing work at a job site. Once hazards have been identified, appropriate corrective actions should be taken. 3. implement and maintain a written Injury & Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) which addresses the hazards associated with, and the specific safety training necessary for materials handling.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.