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: 1602091.015 - Wades Mobile Home Transport Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Eau Clair

Investigation Summary

At 11:30 a.m. on June 8, 2022, an employee was working as a laborer on a crew wi th three coworkers prepping a foundation to place a mobile home onto a lot. The home was a 56-foot by 16-foot Champion Model 11 P915 single family home. The fou ndation consisted of recycled concrete material and poured concrete piers spaced approximately every nine feet along each side. Initial placement involved the i nstallation of temporary cribbing under both sides of the structure's I-beams, a pproximately 4 feet from the front (hitch) end. After the cribbing was in place, the crew lowered the front-end of the structure and uncoupled the hitch from th e semi-truck. The structure was now supported by cribbing at the front and by fo ur sets of axles and tires at the rear. The crew then placed concrete masonry un its (blocking) with caps on the second through fourth piers from the front on ei ther side up to the rear axles. To remove the axles and tires, the crew raised t he rear end using 20-ton bottle jacks and placed temporary cribbing under the I- beams on each side, approximately 14-feet from the rear. After the tires and axl es were removed, the crew raised the rear of the structure using the jacks to re move the cribbing in order to place the remaining blocking onto the piers. The s tructure was now supported by temporary cribbing at the front and by jacks under I-beams on each side. The structure was suspended approximately 3-inches above the concrete blocking. The company owner began placing blocking on the 5th pier on one side while the employee and a coworker placed blocking on the 5th pier at the opposite side. As the employee was working partially underneath the north I -beam, the structure shifted and collapsed toward the owner and the employee. Th e owner was struck by floor joists and incurred non-life-threatening injuries. T he employee was pinned under the I-beam and was crushed. The employee died due t o multiple crushing injuries not limited to his chest, back, neck and head.

Keywords:back, building, building collapse, chest, construction, crushed, falling object, fracture, head, lack of engineering controls, material handling, neck, pinned, residential construction, unstable load, unstable posit