Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1497825.015 - Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Wilkes Barre Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 10:00 a.m. on October 10, 2020, an employee was working at a recreational vehicle (RV) park and campground. He was the property manager. Occasionally, tenants, would not pay the fee for parking their RVs in the campsite. When that happened, the park owners towed away the RVs. To do this, they used a 2007 John Deere model 4720 farm tractor, with serial S00729-03. In this incident, the employee and a coworker, a minor, were performing maintenance tasks on the tractor, because it had stopped working. Neither was authorized to work on the tractor. Two other workers, the firm's facilities manager and someone from maintenance, would usually perform the maintenance on and inspection of this tractor. They were busy because an event was going on. The coworker was sitting on the seat of the tractor, while the employee was on the ground near the rear wheel of the tractor, trying to determine why the tractor was not moving. The employee had instructed the coworker to get on the seat of the tractor and to press the brake. The coworker was not allowed to operate the tractor because he was a minor and had yet to receive training. The tractor began to move forward, knocking the employee to the ground. The employee suffered bruises, contusions, and abrasion to his legs. He was treated without hospitalization. The tractor typically didn't break down, and visual inspections were conducted by a maintenance employee. The safety manager) explained to the CSHO during the closing conference that "those guys knew the tractor was giving them problems" and that the tractor had been locked out or tagged out until an authorized John Deere dealership could inspect and perform maintenance on it properly.

Keywords: Abrasion, Contusion, Farm Machinery, Leg, Lockout, Lockout/Tagout, Maintenance, Moving Object, Powered Industrial Vehicle, Struck By, Training, Unauthorized, Untrained