Truck driver killed when struck by laminated veneer beams falling from a forklift.
Authors
New York State Department of Health/Health Research Incorporated
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 02NY027, 2003 Dec; :1-7
Abstract
On May 20, 2002, a 34 year-old male truck driver (the victim), who was employed by a wood products facility, sustained fatal injuries as a result of being struck by a load of laminated veneer beams which fell from a forklift. On the morning of the accident, the victim was assisting a forklift operator loading a unit of four laminated veneer support beams, weighing a total of 750 pounds, onto a flat-bed trailer. The victim was standing on top of the trailer in front of the moving unit, guiding the forklift operator. When the operator began tipping the forklift mast and sliding the unit onto the trailer, one end of the unit slid off the forks first and hit the beams that had already been loaded in the trailer. The impact caused the unit to bounce and swing rapidly toward the victim. The victim was struck by the load which caused him to fall off the trailer. His head was then crushed by the load. EMS and the local police department were called to the scene and found the victim unresponsive with a massive head injury. The medical examiner was called, arrived at the site, and pronounced the victim dead at the scene. The deceased was transported from the accident site to a local funeral home. New York State Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) investigators concluded that to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future, employers should: 1. Develop and implement a standard forklift loading procedure and ensure that all workers follow the procedure; 2. Provide additional refresher training for all forklift operators in the event of an accident or near-miss incident in the workplace; 3. Require workers to wear head protection (hard hat) when assisting with loading or performing any tasks with a potential for head injury.
Keywords
Region-2; 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; Equipment-operators; Truck-drivers; Safety-helmets; Personal-protection; Personal-protective-equipment; Protective-equipment; Training; Head-protective-equipment; Head-injuries; Warehousing
Document Type
Field Studies; Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation
Funding Type
Cooperative Agreement
NTIS Accession No.
PB2010-111711
Identifying No.
FACE-02NY027; Cooperative-Agreement-Number-U60-CCU-220784
Source Name
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Performing Organization
New York State Department of Health/Health Research Incorporated
