Wife is pinned between tractor loader bucket and foundation wall while helping husband build new home - Iowa.
Source
NIOSH 1997 Mar; :1-4
Abstract
In the fall of 1996, a 51-year-old Iowa farmwife was killed while helping her husband and son build a new home on their farm. The woman and her 21-year-old son were standing next to the exterior foundation of the home covering drainage tubing with gravel. The woman was holding down the tile with her feet while her son was shoveling gravel out of a partially-filled front end loader bucket on a tractor his father was driving. The edge of the bucket was approximately three feet from the foundation wall when this work began. The father had the tractor in gear with the clutch pushed in, and his foot on the brakes, sitting on a slope of about 18 degrees downwards towards the house foundation. When he began to raise the bucket, suddenly the farmer heard his son yell at him and realized the tractor was creeping forward towards the foundation despite his pressure on the brakes. He saw his son being pinned to the wall with his back towards the tractor, then realized that his wife was also being pinned to the wall with the other corner of the bucket. He immediately put the tractor in reverse and backed off, at which time both his wife and son fell to the ground. The son received only minor injuries to his back, but the farmer's wife was killed instantly from internal vascular rupture. Recommendations based on our investigation are as follows: 1. Workers should not be positioned in a narrow space between a powered vehicle and a stationary object. 2. Owners/operators of tractors should be made aware of necessary precautions related to front-end loader use. 3. Independent testing is needed to determine whether there is a possibility of malfunction of brakes when this type of tractor is used on an incline.
Keywords
Region-7; Accident-analysis; Accident-prevention; Accidents; Injuries; Injury-prevention; Traumatic-injuries; Work-operations; Work-analysis; Work-areas; Work-performance; Work-practices; Safety-education; Safety-equipment; Safety-measures; Safety-monitoring; Protective-measures; Construction; Women; Farmers; Tractors; Agricultural-machinery; Agricultural-workers
Document Type
Field Studies; Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation
Funding Type
Cooperative Agreement
NTIS Accession No.
PB2007-108694
Identifying No.
FACE-96IA061; Cooperative-Agreement-Number-U60-CCU-708674
Source Name
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Performing Organization
Iowa Department of Public Health
