Inspection Detail

Inspection: 106863400 - Clause Paving

Inspection Information - Office: Buffalo Area Office

Investigation Summary

On September 17, 1996, Employee #1, who had been hired as a laborer with a road paving crew, was apparently performing his assigned duties. The crew had laid one and a half strips of asphalt when the paver ran out of asphalt. A dump truck, license plate #19466AF, backed up and loaded the paver while Employee #1 stood at the paver's left side. The truck then pulled forward, lowered the dumper, and, at the command of the company supervisor/owner, reversed direction to back out of the way of the paver. Employee #1 was situated in the 6 to 8 ft between the paver and the dump truck, which moved to the left side of the paver. The driver of the truck said he felt a bump and heard someone yelling. When he stopped the truck and got out he saw Employee #1 under the passenger rear wheels, between the two sets of tires. He had been run over and killed. The truck's back-up alarm is turned on automatically when the truck is shifted into reverse, but coworkers working with the steam roller and paver said that they could not hear it because of the noise from those two vehicles. Employee #1 was 70 percent deaf in one ear and was wearing a sweatshirt with the hood up.

Keywords: CLEARANCE, WORK RULES, CONSTRUCTION, DUMP TRUCK, NOISE, STRUCK BY, RUN OVER, COMMUNICATION, BACKING UP