Inspection Detail

Inspection: 116314055 - Mario Campuzano

Inspection Information - Office: Dallas Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 4:45 p.m., on April 27, 1997, Employee #1, a stucco worker at an apartment complex under construction in Dallas, TX, was bending over or kneeling in a sand pile behind a stucco mixer, cleaning his tools. The mixing bucket was approximately 5 ft tall, and the motor was approximately 4 ft tall. Next to the motor was an approximately 4 ft tall stack of stucco mix, a 55 gal drum of water, and the sand pile. A coworker drove his forklift/tractor from the west to the pile of stucco mix and parked next to the mixer. He extended and lowered his boom across the stucco mix and down to the sand pile, pinning Employee #1 beneath the forks. The operator then turned off the forklift, removed the keys, and left the site. Sometime later, a witness saw the Employee #1 lying in the sand, and another forklift was used to free him. He was killed. The stucco contractor had been having problems with someone removing the motor from the mixer at night, and he decided to have the material lift parked in next to the motor to prevent it from happening again . He also said it was common for employees to clean their tools in the sand at the end of the day, since it was faster than using water. The mixing materials at the site are commonly found in close proximity to each other, and piles of building materials from 2 ft to 6 ft tall were stacked in the parking lot. Subsequent investigation revealed that a forklift operator driving around the building from east to west, and past the piles in the parking lot, would not be able to see someone kneeling in the sand pile. The stucco contractor said he left the site on the day of the accident thinking that all employees had gone home. The forklift operator has not been seen since the accident. .

Keywords: IND TRK OPERATOR, BOOM, OBSTRUCTED VIEW, PINNED, WORK RULES, CLEANING, CONSTRUCTION, INDUSTRIAL TRUCK