Inspection Detail

Inspection: 119637239 - Hicks Creek Ranch

Inspection Information - Office: Fremont District Office

Investigation Summary

On February 20, 2001, the ranch manager decided to suspend work for the day due to the inclement weather. He told Employee #1 and two other workers to take the day off because of the weather. Since the three of them lived on the property, they decided after the manager left to do some road work anyway. Employee #1 had worked for the manager in the construction industry prior to coming to work at the ranch and he was the only one of the three who spoke English. The recent rains had washed away several small banks above the road they were about to begin working on. The other two workers began working on the small slides with shovels and Employee #1 went up the road to get a tractor to make the job easier. Employee #1 was coming down the hill on the road when he turned the wheel to the right making the tractor back in that direction. Employee #1 got too close to the edge and the tractor started to flip up in the front. Employee #1 did not have on his seatbelt and when the tractor was about at the top of its arc he tried to jump to safety when the tractor changed the direction of its motion. Employee #1 had jumped to the right of the tractor and landed in the mud in a face down position. When the tractor changed direction, the 3000-lb tractor fell on him crushing him into the mud with the roll bar. Employee #1 was killed.

Keywords: ASPHYXIATED, ROLL-OVER, ROPS, CRUSHED, SEAT BELT, TRACTOR