UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

On March 3, 2011, Employee #1 was working primarily as a truck driver for a ready-mix concrete firm. He was one of three workers who had been directed to a part of the firm's facility where concrete blocks were cast in the warmer months. They had been sent so that the casting forms could be removed to a shop to be prepared for the season. This area was a large concrete pad, located a few hundred feet up a gravel or dirt access road from a scale house. One of the three workers was the operator of a loader. He drove the loader up to the site so that remaining snow near the forms could be removed. The other two workers normally worked as truck drivers, but during slow periods they would be assigned other work. They were to help load the form sections into the bucket of the loader. One of the workers elected to drive his pickup truck to the area, but Employee #1 elected to walk. Temperatures on each of the three days before the accident had risen above the freezing mark for seven to ten hours each day, causing accumulated snow and ice to melt. Part of the area had been cleared three days before the accident. Melt from the surrounding snow flowed onto the concrete pad around the edges where it had been cleared. Temperatures fell each night, refreezing the day's melt. The loader operator stated that he drove past Employee #1, who was approaching the concrete pad and walking over some snow. The loader operator stated that as he drove onto the concrete pad he dropped his bucket to make a first pass at clearing some of the snow and ice that had not yet been removed. Prior to backing up for another pass, he looked in his mirror to check for anything or anyone behind him. He stated that he saw Employee #1 flat on his back near the edge of the pad. He backed the loader next to Employee #1 and went to see if he could render any assistance. The loader operator had been trained in first aid and CPR, but Employee #1 was unconscious. The loader operator directed the other worker to call for emergency medical technicians. The other worker then went to the site's entry to direct an arriving ambulance. The company vice-president who managed the location came up to the accident site. Both he and the loader operator stated that there was a layer of very smooth ice on the pad where the melt had refrozen. This was at the front corner of the area that had been cleared the day before. Evidently, Employee #1 had slipped during his first few steps when he stepped off the snow onto the concrete and landed on his back. He struck his head on the thin layer of ice on the concrete, and he was killed. There were no direct witnesses to the accident.