Inspection Detail

Inspection: 315717082 - Tipton Trucking, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Marlton Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 7:40 a.m. on July 11, 2011, Employee #1, a truck driver, was preparing his load of five 7,000 to 9,000 pound concrete highway barriers to be unloaded and lifted off of his flatbed trailer. Employee #1 was parked several hundred feet down a shallow hill from the location where an excavator would lift the barriers off of the trailer and set them on the ground. When it was time for his trailer to be unloaded, he backed his truck and trailer up to the designated area. He was guided by a coworker with the excavator, and positioned so the barriers could be unloaded from the back of the trailer. Employee #1 had removed two of three tie down straps from each barrier while waiting at the bottom of the hill. After repositioning his truck and trailer, witnesses indicated that Employee #1 was removing the third and final strap from each barrier and was working from the rear forward. Employee #1 had removed the final straps for four of the five barriers, when the last strap broke and the barrier toppled over onto Employee #1 crushing and killing him.

Keywords: LOAD SHIFT, CAUGHT BETWEEN, CRUSHED, STRUCK BY, TRAILER, CONCRETE BLOCK, FALLING OBJECT, TRUCK DRIVER