Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1732701.015 - 76049 - Carver Maritime Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Sc Department Of Labor, Licensing, And Regulation

Investigation Summary

At 10:38 a.m. on February 29, 2024, an employee was working as an equipment operator for a maritime company that had just received a cargo ship containing 45,000 tons of #56 granite. Coworkers had unloaded the granite from the ship onto the company's grounds. Coworkers operating dump trucks took the gravel to a stockpiling site where they unloaded the material. A coworker operating a Caterpillar 928 front end loader pushed the gravel up into a pile. Another coworker operating a Caterpillar 345 excavator, located on a flattened area approximately 15 feet in elevation, then scooped the gravel and placed it onto a higher pile, creating a pile approximately 20 to 25 feet tall. On February 28, 2024, the Cat 345 had been moved. To move the equipment, the Cat 345 was driven onto a lowboy trailer. The boom was then removed, the counterweight was removed, and the cab was tilted forward and secured so that the trailer and load could safely be driven under overhead power lines. Once at the destination, the process was reversed to reassemble the equipment. When the cab was tilted back into the upward position, bolts were supposed to be placed securing the cab to the base of the equipment. That action was not done. On February 29, 2024, an employee driving the Cat 345 noticed a hydraulic leak and radioed to the coworker operating the Cat 928 that he would be descending the pile to have the 345 sent to maintenance. During his descent down the granite pile (about a 35-degree angle) the cab of the excavator flipped forward and crashed into the gravel-covered ground causing the employee to impact the rock pile. EMS and police were called and responded to the scene. The seatbelt was intact and did not appear to have been used by the employee who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Keywords: Assembling, Blunt force, Blunt force trauma, Collision, Descending, Disassemble, Driving, Equipment Operator, Front End Loader, Hill, Hydraulic, Hydraulic Equipment, Hydraulic Fluid, Hydraulic Line, Inadequate Maint, Loader, Machine operator, Malfunction, Material Handling, Mech Malfunction, Rock, Safety Device, Shipyard, Slope, Stone, Struck Against, Tips Over, Work Surface