UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Six employees were working at a carpet manufacturing plant on a Saturday. One of the employees was operating a forklift to load rolls of carpet into a trailer for shipment. The employee had not been seen for about 15 minutes. When one of his coworkers saw the forklift and walked over to investigate, he saw the operator pinned against the end of a large caret roll by the carpet pole on the forklift. The pole had pinned the operator squarely between the shoulder blades. The forklift was in forward gear, the motor was running, the brake was not set, and the load was not lowered. There was one roll of carpet on the pole, and the operator was loading a second one onto it. The coworker immediately reversed the forklift and attempted first aid but noted that the operator was dead. He had been suffocated. The operator apparently needed to adjust the second roll of carpeting before he loaded it onto the carpet pole of his lift truck. When he dismounted to adjust the carpet roll, the lift started rolling forward and pinned him to the carpet roll.