Inspection Detail

Inspection: 314225384 - Ricklefs Excavating, Ltd.

Inspection Information - Office: Iowa 0751910

Investigation Summary

On February 22, 2010, Employee #1 was working with two coworkers, wrapping an 18 ft pipe in plastic. The crew was using pipe clamps/tongs hooked to the bucket on an excavator. Coworker #1, the excavator operator, picked up the pipe with the clamp/tong from the staging area on the north side of the excavator. Coworker #1 lowered the pipe to the ground to allow the employee and Coworker #2 to slide the plastic wrap up to the clamp. Coworker #1 set the pipe the rest of the way to ground level to allow Employee #1 and Coworker #2 to reposition the clamp to one end of the pipe. The clamp repositioning allowed Coworker #1 to pick up one end of the pipe so that the employee and coworker could slide plastic wrap over the rest of the pipe. Once the pipe was wrapped, the clamp was repositioned to the center of the pipe, so that Coworker #1 could pick it up and move it to the staging trailer. During the upward and movement to the west, the pipe was not properly balanced/rigged and the pipe became off balance. Employee #1 jumped onto the pipe by putting both arms over the pipe and allowing his chest rest on the pipe. He slipped off the pipe, landing on the ground on his back. The pipe came out of the clamp/tong, landing on the employee's chest and crushing him. Employee #1 was killed.

Keywords: CRUSHED, FALL, PIPE, STRUCK BY, FALLING OBJECT