Inspection Detail

Inspection: 303493852 - Reforestation Unlimited, Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Little Rock Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 10:00 a.m. on August 6, 2000, Employee #1 and a coworker, bulldozer operators for Reforestation Unlimited, LLC, were prepping 160 acres of cleared land for planting pine trees at a site owned by the Plumb Creek Timber Company. They were using D-8 bulldozers equipped with V-blades and discs. There were four dozers running in tandem, cutting stumps off at ground level with the V-blades attached to the front of the dozers, and removing roots with the disc and root removal foot attached to the rear. They were working in bottom land where the ground was very spongy when the coworker's vehicle became stuck. Employee #1 secured a 1 1/2 in. diameter pull cable, and was going to attach one end of the cable to the front eye hook, under the belly on the front of the tractor of the stuck dozer. This portion of the tractor was buried. In order to raise the front of the tractor, the operator raised the blade and put enough cable between the blade and the front of the dozer. Employee #1 was standing on the outside of the dozer blade, but with the blade in the raised position the coworker could not see him. He pushed the hydraulic control for the blade all the way forward, allowing the blade to free fall. When he still did not see Employee #1, he raised the approximately 20,000 lb blade and found that he had been crushed and killed under it. This was the first time Employee #1 and the coworker had worked together. Employee #1 had been with Reforestation Unlimited for several years but the coworker had only started work with them the day before the accident. He had never operated a bulldozer, although he had 10 years of experience with skidders. On his first day he sat in the D-8 cab and observed a coworker for about an hour. He was then assigned his own machine and the coworker he observed rode with him to see if he could handle the vehicle. After approximately three hours, it was felt that he was adequately trained and he was put on his own. The coworker had never experienced being stuck before and the hooking up process was new to him. This indicates a lack of proper training on the part of management, which was a critical factor in the outcome of the accident. The hydraulic control lever that lowered the blade can be operated in two ways. When the blade is in the raised position, the operator can slowly push the lever forward so that the blade goes down slowly. Alternately, the operator can push the lever full forward so the blade free falls and bangs down to the ground. This is what happened when Employee #1 was crawling under the raised blade to attach the cable to the eye hook. He was in a crouched position, on his all fours, when he was crushed by the falling blade. The accident also suggests a lack of communication between the two operators, which again falls back to a lack of proper training.

Keywords: WORK RULES, STUCK VEHICLE, EARTHMOVING EQUIP, CRUSHED, INEXPERIENCE, MIRED, STRUCK BY, BULLDOZER, UNTRAINED