UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Inspection Detail

Note: The following inspection has not been indicated as closed. Please be aware that the information shown may change, e.g. violations may be added or deleted. For open cases, in which a citation has been issued, the citation information may not be available for 5 days following receipt by the employer for Federal inspections or for 30 days following receipt by the employer for State inspections.

Inspection: 1576167.015 - Arboristas Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Ca Fresno

Investigation Summary

At 4:00 p.m. on December 27, 2021, an employee was working as a groundskeeper or gardener for a landscaping service. He had worked for the firm for eight to ten months. The firm had eighteen employees. The company had expanded to a new loca tion, where the employee was a tree climber and foreman. The employee's job some times required working from an aerial lift mounted to the only tree trimming tru ck at the new site. On the day of the incident, it had been raining. The employe e had gone to the firm's equipment yard between 11:00 a.m. and noon to start the truck and keep the batteries charged. At 5:00 p.m., the employee's supervisor w as called by someone from another firm, a moving company, that shared the equipm ent yard with the firm. The caller told him that the employee had been found unc onscious. At the time, the location was monitored on a video camera. When the su pervisor arrived at the scene, he was given an account of the incident by worker s from the moving company. The employee was on the truck's platform, above the c ab of the truck. The uppermost edge of the platform was 8 feet (2.4 meters) abov e the ground). The employee was not wearing PPE, though that was required. The e mployee said he was greasing the truck's bucket, but that was supposed to be don e from another location. He did not remember what happened next. The employee fe ll approximately 8 feet (2.4 meters) onto asphalt. He suffered fractures of his ribs, clavicle, and skull. He was hospitalized.

Keywords:clavicle, elevated work plat, elevated work platform, fall, fall from elevation, fall protection, fracture, landscaper, landscaping, loss of consciousness, ppe, rain, rib, skull, slippery surface, tree trimming, truc