Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300758984 - Armstrong Garden Center

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 10:00 p.m. on May 1, 2000, Employee #1 was loading a concrete fountain onto a Ford Custom F350 delivery truck. He and a coworker had used a dolly to bring the fountain out to the parking lot, had lowered the truck's Waltco lift gate, put a mover's blanket on the lift gate, and then shifted the fountain from the dolly onto the lift gate. The coworker then raised the lift gate. As it rose, a corner of the mover's blanket fell into the space between the gate and the truck bed. Employee #1 pulled the blanket out of the crevice, exposing a 3/4 in. gap between the gate and the truck bed. He then began to maneuver the fountain onto the truck bed, stretching fully across the 3 ft wide lift gate as he did so. He was loading the fountain when the coworker accidentally struck the Waltco controls, catching Employee #1's right index finger was in the nip point between the gate and the track bed. His fingertip was amputated. The cause of the accident was the coworker's lack of training in operating the Waltco gate, and their mutual failure to follow the instructions provided for using the gate. At the time of the accident, Employee #1 was a temporary, full-time delivery/maintenance man who had worked for the retail nursery and garden center for two months.

Keywords: LOADING, AMPUTATED, FINGER, WORK RULES, CAUGHT BETWEEN, INEXPERIENCE, NIP POINT, PICKUP TRUCK, UNTRAINED, COMMUNICATION