UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

At approximately 2:55 p.m. on March 9, 1989, Employee #1 had finished changing a muffler tailpipe system on a large Case W24C forklift (#22102) at a work site. He wished to move the machine but found it inoperable and decided to use a similar forklift (#22101) to charge its battery. A coworker, the operator of machine #22101, parked approximately 3 ft away from #22102, got out, and attached the charge cable to #22101. Meanwhile, Employee #1 was standing between the two machines, attaching the jumper cable to #22102. When the operator returned to his cab to start the engine, #22101 rolled backward, pinning Employee #1 between the two machines. When the forklift operator became aware of the accident, he ran to #22101 and moved it forward to release Employee #1, who had suffered fatal chest injuries. OSHA believes that the accident occurred due to a failure to chock the wheels on machine #22101, or a possible failure to set the brakes.