Inspection Detail

Inspection: 315098327 - Veolia Es Solid Waste Midwest, Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Chicago North Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 1:20 p.m. on November 9, 2010, Employee #1, a 42-year-old male, Hispanic laborer, who spoke and understood English, was working as a garbage truck driver, a position he held for approximately 20 years. Employee #1 was at a landfill, where his employer, a solid waste management company, was storing dumpsters that had been picked up from customers to switch them out for a different style. The dumpsters were full or half full and needed to be emptied by a rear-loading truck. Employee #1 was operating a MACK, rear loading garbage truck, with a Heil brand garbage truck skin and a Qwik-Tip II automated lifting device. He was standing at the rear passenger side of the truck to operate the lifting controls of the Qwik-Tip II device, and use it to dump a six-yard-capacity dumpster into the rear of his truck. The dumpster trunnion arm on the driver's side of the truck dislodged from the locking hook that secured it into place during dumping. The dumpster pivoted on the passenger side trunnion bar and winch cable, which was attached to the rear of the dumpster, and the dumpster swung towards the passenger side of the truck. The dumpster struck Employee #1 and pinned his shoulder, chest, and neck between it and another dumpster that was in the area. Employee #1 was killed. The locking hooks were observed to be out of sync and appeared to not have functioned concurrently to lock the trunnion bars into place, while the dumpster was being lifted. The area in which the dumpsters were stored was level, and nothing was notable about the ground location. It was sunny and dry on the day of the accident, and therefore, weather did not appear to have contributed to the accident.

Keywords: GARBAGE TRUCK, PINNED, DUMPSTER, LANDFILL, STRUCK BY, MECH MALFUNCTION, TRUCK DRIVER