Inspection Detail

Inspection: 306099029 - Phoung Environmental Contractor, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Boston North Area Office

Investigation Summary

On October 15, 2003, an employee, an unlicensed, inexperienced operator, was operating a Bobcat to gather and dispose of interior demolition debris. The employee approached a wall opening, which had the window removed dump concrete block debris 18 ft to the ground. The wall opening still contained the 3-ft high by 7-ft wide concrete block wall at the base. On the outside and attached to the block wall was a tapered cast concrete panel of the same dimensions. When the operator approached the opening with a filled and raised grapple bucket, there was no stop block to prevent the operator from making contact with the wall. It appears either the operator approached the wall opening too fast to stop before hitting the wall or repeated bumping of the wall from previous loads loosened the mortar holding the block and concrete panel. If the latter had occurred, evidence suggests that when the operator tapped the wall while lowering the lifting arms and bucket, forward movement contact caused the concrete panel to lean away from the building and against the bucket and caused the equipment to exceed the "tipping load", this pulled the equipment through the wall with the pivot point being the front tires. The employee was killed in the fall.

Keywords: DEMOLITION, LOADER BUCKET, CONSTRUCTION, INDUSTRIAL TRUCK, FALL, UNTRAINED, UNSTABLE LOAD