UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

On March 19, 2007, Employee #1, of a cross-country trucking and delivery service, was working with a coworker as a two-man team, delivering a load of frozen meat to a customer. The coworker (the driver) had about seven months experience driving, while Employee #1 (the assistant) was on his first cross-country trip as a trainee, having been with the company for two weeks. Upon arrival at the customer's site, Employee #1 got out of the passenger side of the tractor and proceeded toward the rear of the driver's side of the tractor trailer. He was to give hand signals to direct the driver around a parked van while the driver backed the truck to the loading dock. Witnesses stated that the truck was not equipped with a back-up alarm and Employee #1 was not wearing a reflective safety vest at the time of the accident. As the truck approached the van, Employee #1 stated that he tried to signal and yell at the driver to stop, but that the driver neither saw nor heard him. He tried to jump out of the way of the truck but became pinned between the truck and the van. He was hospitalized with a fracture of his right arm. Both he and the driver stated that they had not received safety training from the employer, and that safety meetings were instituted after the accident. The injured employee was a trainee and did not have previous experience with signaling backing trucks.