Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1635948.015 - Traffic Control Devices, Llc.

Inspection Information - Office: Jacksonville

Investigation Summary

At 11:30 a.m. on November 21, 2022, an employee and three coworkers were lifting a quazite box off of a truck with a 303E CR Mini Hydraulic Excavator. Coworker #1, the foreman, got into the cab of the excavator and drove it up to the truck with the bucket centered on the bed and the blade pointing toward the sidewall, 3 feet above the bed to give them room to work. The crew conducted a group huddle to communicate plans on how they were going to lift the box off of the truck. After the huddle, Coworker #2 went into the back of the truck to hook up the cable when he noticed that the truck needed to be pulled forward to be able to hook the straps up to the excavator. Coworker #2 got out of the back of the truck and told Coworker #1 that he was going to move the truck forward and walked toward the cab. As Coworker #2 was walking to the cab, Coworker #1 said that he could get the box from there but Coworker #2 did not hear it. When the Coworker #2 had gotten into the cab, he looked through the rear-view mirror and saw the employee standing on the rear wheel of the truck to get into the back. Coworker #2 thought that the employee was getting into the back of the truck to hold up the straps to see how much further he needed to move the truck forward and that Coworker #1 was going to honk the excavator horn to let him know that the truck was in the right spot. But the employee was actually going in the back of the truck to take the lid off of the box. Coworker #1 asked the employee what size ratchet he needed and went to grab the ratchet. While Coworker #1 was getting the ratchet, Coworker #2 moved the truck but did not hear the excavator horn, so he looked back and saw the employee caught between the bucket and the box. Coworker #2 then backed the vehicle up and the employee fell on a pile of dirt in the back of the truck. The employee was hospitalized and on November 27, 2022, he died due multisystem failure from the crushing of his abdomen.

Keywords:abdomen, box lid, bucket , cable, caught between, crushed, crushing, excavator, lift bucket, tote box