UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

At 10:30 a.m. on February 16, 2022, Employee #1, a landscape technician, was ope rating a mini- excavator (model CAT 302.7D CR and product identification number CAT3027DJLJ702031) about 2 feet away from the wall, digging a trench about 12 in ches deep for a drain line at a construction job site of a landscaping company . There were three employees at the accident jobsite. Coworker #1, a landscaping laborer/lead was about 6-7 feet away, and coworker #2, a laborer, was about a 1, 000 feet away from Employee #1 when the accident happened. Coworker #1 heard a p ush-like sound. Coworker #1 turned around and saw Employee #1 pressed against th e building by the tractor. No one saw what happened just before the accident, bu t Coworker #1 assumes Employee #1 was stepping out of the mini-excavator cab wit hout raising the hydraulic control lockout lever, and therefore Employee #1's le ft knee hit the joystick that caused the tractor to swing and pin the employee b etween the tractor and the adjacent building. Employee #1 sustained serious anox ic brain injury, traumatic cardiac arrest, left pulmonary hemorrhage with active bleeding, right 4th-6th rib fracture with flail segments, left 5th-6th rib frac ture with flail segments, and severe bilateral pulmonary contusions, which all l ead to Employee #1's death. The employer did not train and instruct the operato r on Employee Operating Instructions of the tractor; more specifically, the empl oyer did not instruct Employee #1 to raise the hydraulic control lockout when st epping out of the excavator.