Inspection Detail

Inspection: 303728000 - Wolf Landscape Design, Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Omaha Area Office

Investigation Summary

On July 17, 2001, Employee #1 and another employee were leaving a tree removal job where several crab apple trees were removed from a customer's property in the city of Ogallala. The other employee told Employee #1 that he would drive the dump truck back to the yard and for Employee #1 to follow him in the Massey Ferguson MF-11 front-wheel-drive loader. As Employee #1 drove the front end loader, he decided to take a different route to drive the loader back to the yard area. Employee #1 chose a route that involved traveling down a steep hill of 5 to 10 degrees. The loader tires were in a state of disrepair and were missing some lug nuts, which may have caused the loader to wobble as it traveled down the hill. Employee #1 lost control of the loader and struck the West curb of the street as he was traveling down the hill to the South. The loader rolled over. The other employee had taken the normal route past the company owner's house. When he arrived, the company owner asked where Employee #1 was and the other employee replied that Employee #1 was following in the loader. Shortly after this conversation, the company owner learned by telephone that Employee #1 had been involved in an accident. As it turned out, Employee #1 was driving the loader South down East G Street in town when he apparently lost control of the loader. The loader struck the curb on the West side of the road, turned across the street to the East and rolled over. Employee #1 was pinned underneath the overturned vehicle and was crushed to death.

Keywords: ASPHYXIATED, VEHICLE, PINNED, STEEP GRADE, CRUSHED, STRUCK BY, LOST CONTROL, OVERTURN