Inspection Detail

Inspection: 305476830 - Westridge Golf Club

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

At 7:45 a.m. on August 6, 2004, Employee #1, a laborer at a golf club, was operating a Jacobsen Sand Scorpion, sand trap grooming machine, Model Number 71635, Serial Number 1848. Employee #1 had been an employee at the golf club for six days. As Employee #1 drove the vehicle over the edge of a steep embankment, he struck the steering wheel with his chest. He was then thrown out of the vehicle halfway down the embankment as the Sand Scorpion proceeded down the nearly 60-foot brushy area coming to rest upright by the tee on the next green below. Employee #1 was transported to Harbor UCLA General Hospital, then to UC Irvine Medical Center, where he was hospitalized and treated for a lacerated liver and bruised kidney. During the accident investigation Employee #1 refused to be interviewed, but the golf club superintendent provided the details of the accident. The vehicle did not bear any scratch marks, and has an inertial brake which brings the vehicle to a stop whenever the driver takes his foot off the accelerator. The brittle, fairly dense brush in the area where the vehicle was found did not appear broken or bent over, and the tire track, marking his path, only went a foot down the hill. Further, Employee #1 had no reported lacerations or abrasions consistent with being ejected from a moving vehicle in steep, rough terrain. Nor did he have rib fractures, also consistent with impact with the steering wheel sufficient to lacerate the liver. He only had the abdominal trauma.

Keywords: CHEST, EJECTED, MAINTENANCE, VEHICLE, LIVER, STEEP GRADE, INEXPERIENCE, LACERATION, STRUCK BY, LOST CONTROL