Inspection Detail

Inspection: 305313546 - Richard Vanosten

Inspection Information - Office: Medford

Investigation Summary

On August 21, 2002, Employee #1, a self-employed independent truck driver, was delivering a load of wood products to Juhl Enterprises. He removed the load strap wrappers and began rolling them up while two coworkers approached the truck with forklifts to start off-loading. The foreman went to the driver side of the trailer and removed eight glue lams (wooden beams), while the other coworker drove his forklift to the front passenger side of the trailer and began off-loading two partial units of plywood. Employee #1 was at the rear of the trailer on the passenger side, rolling up wrappers. As the second coworker backed his forklift, apparently two of the glue lams, which were on top of the center three units of plywood, became caught on the plywood being removed and dislodged. The forklift operator looked where the glue lams were falling and saw that Employee #1 had walked into their path. The smaller glue lam, which weighed approximately 300 lbs, fell off the trailer and struck Employee #1 on the chest. It knocked him down, then apparently rebounded off the ground and struck him in the forehead as he lay on his back at a 90 degree angle to the trailer. This first wooden beam came to rest approximately 2 ft from Employee #1's head, which was oriented away from the trailer. The second glue lam, approximately 1,000 lbs, fell from the trailer and landed on Employee #1's torso. Emergency Services responded, and Employee #1 was pronounced dead at the scene.

Keywords: CLEARANCE, HEAD, UNSECURED, WORK RULES, OFF LOADING, TRUCK DRIVER, CAUGHT BY, TORSO, STRUCK BY, FALLING OBJECT