Inspection Detail

Inspection: 316617877 - City Of Sumter Administration

Inspection Information - Office: Sc Department Of Labor, Licensing, And Regulation

Investigation Summary

On September 6, 2012, Employee #1 and Employee #2 were working at a waste water treatment facility using a city sewer truck, to pump out raw sewage from the bottom of the pit, in order to change the wood flooring. The truck was parked on a concrete driveway directly in front of the pit site, with the front of the truck facing the wall of the pit. The driveway was not visibly sloped in any direction. Employee #1 and Employee #2 began to hook up the hoses, to remove the raw sewege. Employee #1 went inside the cab of the truck to prepare it for the operation by engaging the air brakes and the hose in order to pump the pit out. Once the suction pipe was connected to the boom in front of the truck, Employee #1, standing alongside Employee #2, where the controls for the vacuum pump were located, started to move the boom with the controls. The truck started to move forward and pinned the left leg of Employee #1 and the right leg of Employee #2 against the concrete reinforced wall of the holding pit, fracturing multiple bones in both employee's legs. Both Employee #1 and Employee #2 were taken to a local area hospital where surgery was performed on both of them to repair the damage to their legs, and stayed for several days. It was determined during the investigation, that Employee #1 had failed to put the emergency brake on when they began pumping out the sewege.

Keywords: FRACTURE, HEALTH CARE FACILITY, CRUSHED, TRUCK, PIT, STRUCK BY, PUMP, SEWAGE, CONCRETE, LEG