Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1498820.015 - Hi-Temp Llc Dba Bluewater Thermal Solutions

Inspection Information - Office: Naperville Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 5:00 p.m. on October 9, 2020, an employee was working for a metal heat treating firm. She was operating a sit-down powered industrial truck (PIT). She and a coworker were on a break outside the plant, headed toward some logs lying on the ground. They were retrieving the logs for firewood. As the truck ascended a slight incline in a grassy area between two sections of concrete, it became stuck in the grass and mud. The coworker put some planks on the ground to provide traction, but to no avail. The coworker called a second coworker, inside the plant, to come out with another PIT. The second coworker pushed the employee's vehicle from both the front and the back, again to no avail. The second coworker then positioned the back of his PIT against the back of the employee's PIT. The first coworker went back into the building and returned with a sling tether and a heavy chain, as well as a third PIT. He parked it with its forks facing the forks of the second coworker's PIT. The two coworkers fastened the sling between the back ends of the employee's and the second coworker's PITs. They fastened a heavy chain between the load backrest extensions on the fronts of the coworkers' vehicles. The employee was sitting with her back to the downslope of the hill. When the two coworkers started their vehicles, the second coworker felt a slight jerking motion. He turned around and saw that the employee's head was slumped to the left. Her PIT's wheels were still spinning. The second coworker got off his PIT and ran to the employee to turn off her vehicle and assist her. She was momentarily unconscious and bleeding from her head. It was believed that the jarring motion of the (unsuccessful) tow attempt had pitched a small rock or piece of mud into the back of the employee's head, causing her head to jerk back against her PIT's frame. The employee suffered a fractured skull, loss of consciousness, a subdural hematoma, and a head laceration. She was hospitalized for two or more days.

Keywords: Flying Object, Fracture, Frame, Head, Ind Trk Operator, Laceration, Lost consciousness, Powered Industrial Vehicle, Rock, Skull, Slope, Sloping, Struck Against, Struck By, Stuck, Subdural Hematoma, Towed Equipment, Unconsciousness