Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300336385 - Gulf Hauling & Construction, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Mobile Area Office

Investigation Summary

On February 26, 1999, Employee #1, of Gulf Hauling, Inc., was working as a night shift in-house truck driver at a mill site in Mobile, AL. Sometime between 11:00 p.m. and 12 midnight, he was hauling a load of lime product to a waste pad when his dump truck became stuck on the pad. Employee #1 He got out of his vehicle and fell on the waste pad, which was covered in 6 to 12 in. of caustic materials, including green liquor dregs, slaker grit, pfizer grit, and black liquor solids. He lay in this material until he was found, at approximately 5:30 a.m., by the day shift driver. Employee #1 was taken to a nurse's station and rinsed off in a shower before being transported to USA Medical Center's burn unit. He suffered chemical burns on over two-thirds of his body, he died at approximately 9:30 p.m. on April 12, 1999. Gulf Hauling had been contracted to manage the waste hoppers and waste pad at the Mobile mill site, as well as a landfill in Chunchula owned by the same company. They had recently begun a new and unrelated project to haul black liquor solids to the waste pad. When he was found on the morning of February 27, Employee #1 was not wearing any type of chemically impervious clothing, either on top of or in place of his jeans, a long-sleeve shirt, and leather work boots. He was not provided with a radio or walkie-talkie to summon help, nor was his dump truck equipped with a radio. No check-in procedures for Gulf Hauling employees working at the site had been implemented, and there was only one in-house driver on the night shift. The waste pad had no permanent light fixtures. There was a portable light unit at the pad on the night of the accident, but the Gulf Hauling night shift workers were not using it because they said they had not been shown how to turn it on.

Keywords: DELIVERY WORK, PROTECTIVE CLOTHING, CAUSTIC, WORK RULES, SLIP, LIGHTING, CHEMICAL BURN, FALL, CHEMICAL