Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1267750.015 - Okeelanta Corporation

Inspection Information - Office: Fort Lauderdale Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 11:15 a.m. on September 28, 2017, an employee was driving a Ford F-150 pick-up truck on a dirt farm road, and was the only person in the vehicle. Another employee driving a passenger van, who also did not stop at the 4-way intersection, struck the employee's vehicle on the passenger side door (broad-side), which subsequently resulted in the truck rolling-over and plunging into an irrigation canal, and coming to rest in the canal upside-down. The passenger van also plunged into the irrigation canal, coming to rest right-side-up, and on top of the pick-up truck. The first responder indicated that he did not have to unfasten the employee's seat belt in order to extricate him, and that after breaking-out the driver's side window with a crow bar, the employee was unconscious when he reached under the water and into the cab of the pick-up truck to remove him. It is not known if the employee unfastened his seat belt in an attempt to extricate himself from the submerged vehicle, and may have downed/loss consciousness during his attempt to free himself from the vehicle. In addition, the employee's vehicle was struck broadside, and the inspection of both vehicles after the accident appears to show that the employee's steering wheel airbag did not deploy, but that the airbag in the van did deploy. The investigation also revealed that due the height of the sugar cane at the time of the accident, the employee would not have been able see the van approaching the intersection, nor would the van driver have been able to see the pick-up truck approaching the intersection.

Keywords: Agriculture Machinery/Vehicle, Collision, Motor Vehicle