UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Abstract: At approximately 10:45 p.m. on September 17, 2000, at Americold Logistics, site on Mill Road, Fogelsville. At the facility an employee, was injured when the forklift truck he was operating ran into a rack, crushing the victim between the truck and the storage rack. Management and employee statements report the victim was assigned to remove pallets from the racks in building one, aisle D-19. They further report he was approximately 45 minutes into his shift when employees in the area heard the victim yell. Witnesses report the employee was injured when the lift he was operating ran backward into a cross member on a shelving unit in the warehouse. They reported hearing a loud noise then finding the employee in his lift. CSHO measured the bottom of the shelving unit to be 46.5 in. off the floor and the rear body of the fork lift to be 45 in. high off the floor level. The truck body missed hitting the shelf by 1.5 in. The lift was a Raymond Pacer, which is operated in a stand up position with the operator standing in the rear of the lift. The victim was a large man whom, management reports did not completely fit in the driver's area of the lift truck. The Pacer is operated by the use of a steering wheel, a hand throttle, and the employee's brake/emergency pedal. The driver must keep the pedal depressed or the lift will brake to a stop. Witnesses report the employee was alive after the accident, the emergency service response was approximately 15 minutes, but by the time they were ready to transport the employee to the hospital they had begun life saving procedures. The employee was pronounced dead on arrival to Lehigh Valley Hospital, Salisbury at 11:34 p.m. A later autopsy showed the victim died of internal bleeding from a severed artery caused by a hip fracture.