UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employee #1, a 21-year-old college student, had recently been hired as a selector in a grocery warehouse. At the start, he was to shadow a trainer and learn from him for nine days before working on his own. Employee #1 spent the first day going through orientation and safety training, including safe operating procedures for a Crown powered pallet jack. On his second day, the trainer was teaching him how to operate the stand-on powered pallet jack. During the first hour, the trainer took Employee #1 to a section of the warehouse where there was little or no traffic, and had him practice going up and down the aisle and making turns. The trainer said that under no circumstances should he get off the pallet jack while it was moving, even if it was going to slam into something or break something. As he was practicing, Employee #1 saw a forklift truck turn into the aisle about five rows down. He panicked and was trying to back up when he saw that he was going to ram into a guardrail by the shelving. This caused him to panic even more. His left foot slid off the pallet jack and became caught between it and the guardrail. Employee #1 tried to walk away from the jack, but he felt nauseous and fell down. The trainer took him to his supervisor, who instructed them to ride over to the facility's medical center. Employee #1 was examined and told to go to a radiologist's office for X-rays. He declined transportation in a cab or an ambulance because he didn't want to leave his car at work. Employee #1 drove himself to the radiologist, where X-rays revealed that his ankle was broken in three places. The company sent him to a surgeon the next day, who said to wait a week to see if he needed surgery. Employee #1 consulted a second surgeon and was told he did need surgery. He returned to his permanent home in Long Island and underwent surgery in which screws were inserted into his ankle.