Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1573277.015 - Allied Propane Service Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Oakland District Office

Investigation Summary

At 4:45 p.m. on December 22, 2021, an employee, a delivery driver, arrived at a customer's residence to deliver three liquid propane gas (LPG) compressed gas cylinders that each weighed 71 pounds. The employee backed his truck into the property parallel to a retaining wall where the cylinder storage area was on the side of the house. The employee lowered the lift gate of the truck to approximately 32 inches and used a wooden plank on the customer's site, approximately 9 inches wide, to bridge across from the gate to the storage area. The employee then loaded the three empty cylinders from the site onto the truck using the wooden plank to roll the cylinders on by their foot ring. The employee then repeated this process to load two out of three of the full tanks to the storage area. As the employee was rolling the third LPG cylinder, he switched his footing on the blocks lining the retaining wall and slipped and fell onto the plank and then onto the ground. The customer heard the noise and came outside and the employee asked him to call for emergency medical services. EMS arrived and transported the employee to a local medical Center, where x-rays discovered fractures of the right 5th, 6th, 7th ribs, a xiphoid fracture, and had a small right pneumothorax. The employee was admitted for management of the pneumothorax and pain.

Keywords: Blunt force, Blunt force trauma, Compressed Gas, Delivery Work, Elevator Gate, Fall, Fall From Elevation, Fracture, Material Handling, Propane, Rib, Slip, Slippery Surface, Tank