Inspection Detail

Inspection: 311253454 - Progress Rail Services Corporation

Inspection Information - Office: Naperville Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 2:45 a.m. on October 10, 2008, Employee #1, a 45-year old American born male was driving an on-site only 3/4 ton utility truck. He struck a parked semi-trailer loaded with an intermodal container and was killed. Both vehicles were impacted in the vehicle fronts with the utility truck passing under the front of the semi-trailer chassis. The impact crushed the cab of the utility truck into the utility box body and moved the semi-trailer chassis rearward approximately 20 inches. There were no reflective surfaces on the front of the semi-trailer chassis or intermodal container that was parked parallel to an additional line of like vehicles. The trailer chassis with containers were facing east and were parked in an area designated for parking by yellow line pavement markings. The pavement markings were parallel to the parked chassis and to the direction of travel of the west bound utility truck. The utility truck was to the right of the southern yellow pavement marking and to the left of a single line of parked chassis with containers when impact occurred with the first chassis of a second line of parked chassis. The single file line of parked chassis became two lines of parked parallel chassis. The only traffic control devices in use were the pavement markings. The area was well lighted. There was an on-site speed limit of 20 MPH. The utility truck was traveling in an area intended only for parked chassis. Employee #1 was recently trained in defensive driving and had documented his inspection of the utility truck without noting any unsafe conditions. The employee was hired in May of 2008 without subsequent employment issues. There were no witnesses, and language was not an issue. He was said to be without vices, personal distress or medical issues.

Keywords: VEHICLE, COLLISION, TRACTOR TRAILER, INATTENTION, POOR VISIBILITY, TRUCK DRIVER