Inspection Detail

Inspection: 119712206 - Soil Enterprises

Inspection Information - Office: Fremont District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 9:30 a.m. Employee #1 was assisting another employee in a wood shrub/debris cleanup operation. Employee #1 assembled piles of debris and in some cases trimmed the larger pieces at the direction of the excavator operator. The excavator operator would pick up the large piles of wood shrub/debris and drop them into a large tub grinder where they were ground into sawdust. Rocks or other hard objects that could not be ground up were ejected at deadly high velocity forces upwards and out of the tub. Employee #1 was not wearing a "hart-hat" even though the work was being done well within a pre-determined hazard zone of operations where the use of a "hart-hat" was considered mandatory. According to the excavator operator, he saw "a thing" eject out of the grinder but did not pay it much attention since this was a common occurrence. Moments later, he noticed Employee #1 lying on the ground. The operator stopped his machine and went to see what was wrong. The operator saw that Employee #1 had a large amount of blood surrounding his head. He looked closer and saw that Employee #1 had sustained a massive injury to his head. Employee #1 had sustained severe craniocerebral injuries resulting in his death.

Keywords: BRUSH CHIPPER, HEAD, HARD HAT, ROCK, CHIPPER, EXCAVATOR, STRUCK BY, PUNCTURE