Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1476063.015 - Atlas Vineyard Management

Inspection Information - Office: American Canyon District Office

Investigation Summary

At 6:35 a.m. on May 19, 2020, an employee, a temporary farm laborer, was working with two coworkers installing metal posts in the ground for a new vineyard. The metal posts were placed along a row 16 feet apart and adjacent rows ran parallel across the field 7 feet apart. A tractor was equipped with a tool that helped pound two posts at a time into the ground. As the tractor driver drove between two rows, two laborers, one on each row, would hold a post perpendicular to the ground until the tractor grabbed hold and began to pound it into the ground. Before installing the metal posts, the workers had installed steel rods approximately four feet apart along the rows that marked the location where each grapevine was going to be planted and also marked the location for the installation of the metal posts. The rods were 3/8 of an inch in thickness and 48 inches in length and were installed perpendicularly from the ground at the height of approximately 42 inches. The employee was walking towards a steel-grape-stakes lying on the ground and as he bent down to pick it up, he was impaled by one of the steel rods along the row. The employee had removed his safety glasses because they were getting fogged up due to the mask he was wearing as a requirement to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The employee was hospitalized to treat a punctured left eye socket and brain damage. The brain damage was so severe that the employee was in the hospital for more than four months.

Keywords: Agriculture, Agriculture Machinery/Vehicle, Brain, Eye, Guide Post, Impaled, Installing, Metal, Metal Pole, Puncture, Puncture Wound, Struck By, Support Posts