UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employee #1 was using a John Deere JD400 backhoe/loader to remove drums filled with waste oil from a storage yard. Two drums had already been moved, and preparations were underway for the last drum. The backhoe was set up with the hoe bucket dug into the ground and the front bucket with a fork attachment in place, but the outriggers were not out. Employee #1 dismounted the vehicle from the right side, walked to the front of the bucket, and moved the drum into place on the forks. He then walked back to the right side of the vehicle, between the two tires. He was reaching up and grabbed the roll cage support arm when the vehicle lurched forward in gear. The right rear tire caught Employee #1's left leg from behind and pulled him down toward the ground so that the moving tire was abrading the skin off the back of his leg, the lower left part of his back, and the back of his left shoulder. As Employee #1 tried to pull himself free, he may have hit the throttle because the vehicle lurched forward and upward, and he was able to get free. He yelled for help, and a neighbor called 911. He was treated by paramedics and then flown to a shock trauma unit. The tire had run up over his entire left side, severely burning the skin. He also suffered a sprained left ankle, a severely fractured right ankle, a fractured back pelvis bone, pulled ligaments in the front of his pelvis, and multiple muscle strains and sprains in his pelvic area. It is not known how or what caused the vehicle to jump into gear or to lurch forward. Either it was in gear, it was "knocked" into gear, or the neutral was "loose" and it vibrated into gear. Employee #1 disobeyed written safety rules for operating the backhoe by dismounting while it was running instead of shutting off the machine.