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

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer does not furnish to each of his employees a place of employment which was free f rom recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious phy sical harm to employees in that employees are exposed to the hazard of being cru shed in the event of falling out of a forklift during an accident. The employer does not ensure that employees wear safety belts while operating forklifts insid e and outside the facility. The violation was observed on or about June 08, 2010 , on the north end of the building. The employees were picking up loaded pallets from inside the facility and moving them to another location outside the facili ty where there were large potholes that further increased the probability of an accident. This exposed the employees to a crushing hazard. Pursuant to 29 C.F.R. 1903.19, within ten (10) calendar days of the date of this citation, the employer must submit documentation describing the actions it is taking to establish, communicate, and implement written procedures to ensure that employees wear safety belts while operating the forklifts. Among other feas ible methods to correct the identified hazard, one method would be to ensure tha t employees use the installed seat belts on the forklifts to eliminate the hazar d of entrapment of the operator's head and/or torso between the truck and ground in the event of a tip-over. This hazard is identified in paragraph 7.41 of ANSI /ITSDF B56.1- 2009 which also requires counterbalanced, center control, high lif t trucks that have a sit- down, nonelevating operator position to have a restrai nt device, system or enclosure for this purpose. DISCLAIMERS: 1) You are not limited to the abatement methods suggested above. 2) The methods explained are general and may not be effective in all cases. 3) The employer is responsible for selecting and carrying out an appropriate method.iate