Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: CRUSHING

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to: a) No person was designated to supervise and prescribed acceptable safe procedures in unloading precast panels resulting in an unsecured load which tipped over creating a crush hazard. These conditions were evidenced by the following findings: 1) Employees were not aware of any specific verbal or written policy to govern a routing pocedure: 2) Methodology utilized exhibited other than a trained response for rigging operations: 3) Unavailability and discontinued use of previously utilized retainer safety arms; 4) Semi-trailer was not level for unloading operations; 5) Employees was working in the danger area of an unbalanced uncontrolled load: 6) Altering of the accepted procedure prior to the event. A feasible abatement method to correct this hazard is to rig the load by means of the Travelift crane before releasing binders and chains to insure stability of the load.