Inspection Detail

Inspection: 304810476 - Hood Industries Dba Mcewen Lumber Company

Inspection Information - Office: Tampa Area Office

Investigation Summary

Employee #1, a forklift operator, and a coworker were unloading bundles of plywood from a rail car using fork lifts. The plywood bundles consisted of 40 sheets of 4 ft by 8 ft by 0.75 in. plywood. There were two rail cars to unload. The first rail car had already been unloaded and was moved out of the yard. The second rail car was in the process of being unloaded. When the rail cars doors are opened, there are four bundles of plywood stacked directly in the door opening. The rail car has a lip that extends down from the top of the rail car and prevents the first bundles from being easily removed since the bundle catches against the lip if it is pulled straight out. The forklift operator locates the placard on the side to be unloaded first, which states "unload this side." Employee #1 indicated that sometimes the first bundles come out fairly easily and sometimes they have to "work" them out. In this case, the top two bundles were "worked" out by using the forklift and side-shifting the bundles. These bundles were taken into the warehouse. While Employee #1 was moving the first two bundles, the other employee removed the last two bundles in the stack and took them to the warehouse. Employee #1 told the other employee to get the other fork lift and go to the back side of the rail car (the side which was unloaded first and now had all four bundles removed). Employee #1 then started pushing the second bundle from the top onto the other employee's fork lift blades. The employee had the second bundle on the forks, backed up and headed around the rail car to the front side. He could not see what was happening in the rail car once he had the bundle on his forks. As he rounded the end of the rail car, he saw that the bundle was on the ground between the rail car and the lift and noticed legs sticking out from under the bundle. The employee set down his bundle and, using his fork lift, helped lift the bundle that had fallen. The forks on Employee #1's lift were still in the air and were above the bundle (approximately 10 ft 1 in. above the ground). Apparently the load did not fall to the third bundle as planned and Employee #1 got off his forklift to make some adjustment to the load when it fell outside the railcar, crushing him.

Keywords: RAILROAD CAR, CRUSHED, INDUSTRIAL TRUCK, FALLING OBJECT