Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1674871.015 - United Parcel Service

Inspection Information - Office: Denver Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 8:50 a.m. on May 26, 2023, an employee as a laborer for a delivery service was preparing for his shift. The employee's job was to unload used pallets from cargo trucks and consolidate them into another truck while working at a loading dock bay. The employee was opening an overhead garage door when the door recoiled from the open position back to the closed position striking the employee on the head. The garage door is operated on a manual spring coil counterbalance system. The metal door measures 6-foot-10-inch by 8-foot in height and weighs 135 pounds. The doors have a hard metal edge with no padding and consisted of dents and bent ridges along the bottom of the door. The door was never serviced reportedly due to the missing padding or the jagged edges along the bottom. The employee sustained a fractured cervical spine with acute cervical spinal cord hemorrhage, acute and subacute lacerations of his forehead, and focal mild atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. The employee died as a result of his injuries.

Keywords: Blunt force, Blunt force trauma, Building, Contusion, Door, Falling Object, Head, Laborer, Laceration, Lack of Engineering Controls, Loading Dock, Overhead Door, Spine, Struck By