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: 1639743.015 - Atlas Excavating, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Indiana

Investigation Summary

At 2:50 p.m. on December 16, 2022, a crew of four employees were excavating a trench to install concrete inlet/outlet boxes for underground utility services. Two employees were working in the trench, one employee was operating the John Deere 160G Excavator, and one employee was outside of the trench. The crew was aligning the concrete box that was approximately 41 and 1/2 inches in length and 37 inches wide with the other piping. The concrete box was rigged to the arm of the excavator for lowering it in place. The excavator operator lowered the concrete box and exited the excavator to discuss with the crew what adjustments needed to be made. The operator went to get back in the excavator to lift the concrete box when he unintentionally hit the control levers that controlled the arm. This caused the box to lift upwards and swing forward, away from excavator cab, and struck Employee #1. The operator attempted to correct the error and swung the arm back the other direction, towards the excavator cab, causing the concrete box to crush Employee #1 against the trench wall. Employee #1 died due to crushing injuries.

Keywords:concrete block, control lever, crushed, crushing, excavator, lifting, rigging, struck against, struck by, trench, wall