Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1564063.015 - Sunbelt Forest Products Alabama, Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Birmingham Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 7:39 a.m. on November 15, 2021, an employee who worked as a Quality Control Inspector had been pushing a wheeled two-level stationery type cart (approximately waist high) in the space between two parked flatbed trailers. Coworkers routinely drive diesel sitdown forklifts from the direction of the building on the concrete pad through that area. The area serves as a yard where flatbed trailers are parked and is located past an access area used by incoming tractor trailers near the bulk treated lumber storage yard. The PITs are also used to transport loads of treated lumber from the lumber storage yard to the flatbed trailers. A coworker was driving a Toyota model 8FD70U 23,280 pound powered industrial truck (PIT) loaded with lumber from the building to the lumber storage area. The coworker drove along the space between the building and the parked trailers and then turned at the end of one of the flatbed trailers to travel between parked trailers toward the lumber storage area. There was a load of lumber on the front end of a trailer where the PIT turned when the driver manuevered around the end of the trailer into the space between two flatbed trailers where the employee was pushing the cart near the front of the trailer. The coworker struck the employee's cart with his lumber load which caused the cart to strike the employee knocking her to the ground and onto her back. The coworker's PIT continued forward pushing the cart over onto the employee and then drove over the employee and dragged her. Her head was crushed leaving no facial features, right hand and forearm were degloved, her chest was crushed, her left hand, lower left leg and back were bruised, and her right leg was deformed. The employee died from cardiopulmonary arrest secondary to blunt force trauma.

Keywords: Arm, Back, Blunt force, Blunt force trauma, Cart, Chest, Concussion, Cut, Face, Forklift, Fracture, Hand, Head, Industrial Truck, Laceration, Lack of Work Procedures, Leg, Material Handling, Misjudgment, Misjudgment of Hazardous Situation, Motor Vehicle, Obstructed View, Poor Visibility, Powered Industrial Vehicle, Puncture, Run Over, Struck By, Walking Surface, Warning Sign