Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1501765.015 - Rja Holdings Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Foster City District Office

Investigation Summary

At 3:00 p.m. on October 21, 2020, an employee working for a catering company was riding on the forks of a forklift. The establishment assembles and provides catered meals to various organizations. At 2:15 p.m., a truckload of food supplies and merchandise arrived at the job site. The employee and a coworker were in the parking lot just outside the building. The employee is the Director of Culinary and is the supervisor and the coworker (a prep-cook) was operating a forklift to unload the truck which contained food products for the catered meals for external clients. They were to bring all of the food supply and merchandise to the production area of the building. In order to unload the truck bed efficiently, they had to put a pallet jack inside the truck bed to move the supplies and merchandise to the leading edge of the truck bed. The employee stated he gave the coworker the signal to put the pallet jack on top of the forks of the forklift. The coworker loaded the pallet jack perpendicularly on the forks. The employee stood on the forks in order to balance the load on the forks of the PIV. The employee stated he signaled the coworker to lift the load which included the PIV and the employee. The coworker operated the PIV along with the elevated the pallet jack while the employee stood on the forks of the pallet jack. They were almost at the truck bed level approximately 4 feet high, when the pallet jack fell off the PIV forks. The employee fell along with the pallet jack hitting his back on the PIV fork. The employee did not ensure that the load on the PIV forks was secured, nor did he use a securely attached safety work platform during the lift. He also stated he has been doing this more than 3 times per day for the last 5 weeks and that it was a common practice at the establishment. In addition, the coworker did not have a forklift training certificate. The employee was hospitalized to treat serious injuries, including fractures to his back.

Keywords: Back, Fall, Fall From Elevation, Fall Protection, Food Preparation, Fracture, Industrial Truck, Inexperience, Lack of Work Procedures, Misjudgment, Misjudgment of Hazardous Situation, PIV, Pallet Jack, Palletized Cargo, Platform, Powered Industrial Vehicle, Raised platform, Truck, Unloading, Unsafe Position, Unsecured, Unstable Load, Unstable Position, Work Surface