Inspection Detail

Inspection: 311828750 - Fox Tops All, Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Nc Department Of Labor - Charlotte

Investigation Summary

On January 11, 2008, Employee #1 and another worker were working together to unload newly delivered granite slabs from a flatbed truck onto Hercules brand slab storage racks. The slots in the rack, which collapse, had four 5-to-6 feet tall, 8.5 feet long, by 3 centimeters thick slabs in each storage slot (a receiver, also referred to as a slot, and had a space of 6.875 inches between two sets of upright pins/support poles). The workers loaded three granite slabs into the end storage slot. One worker removed the upright support member nearest the driveway and used it to slide the three slabs away from the edge of the end slot to make room for the last slab. The pin was not replaced and both workers proceeded to move the last slab from the delivery truck to the slot on the end of the rack. When Employee #1 had guided the slab into place, he released the lifting clamp and directed the fork truck to back away. As the fork truck backed away, the last slab began to fall with Employee #1 standing next to it. All four granite slabs toppled toward Employee #1, who ducked down next to an adjacent A-frame loaded with 5 feet by 8.5 feet granite slabs. The tops of all four slabs contacted the adjacent A-frame with several granite slabs on it. The force of the collapsing slabs caused them to break about 30 percent of the distance from top to bottom of the slabs. It is estimated that Employee #1 was caught under approximately 1,200 pounds of granite. Employee #1 suffered a knee injury, fractured back, fractured sternum, fractured ribs and a partially collapsed lung in the event.

Keywords: FRACTURE, LUNG, UNSECURED, UNSECURED PANEL, CRUSHED, STRUCK BY, FALLING OBJECT, FLATBED TRUCK, UNSTABLE LOAD, UNSTABLE POSITION