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Accident: 202587127 - Employe Fractures T12 Vertebra In Loader Roll-Over

Accident: 202587127 -- Report ID: 0950614 -- Event Date: 10/18/2011
InspectionOpen DateSICEstablishment Name
31531580410/21/20110783Cleary Bros. Landscape, Inc.
At approximately 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 18, 2011, Employee #1 was working as a groundsman. He was working with two coworkers, who were employed as tree workers. The three had been assigned to remove cut trees along the canyon behind the Palomares housing development in Castro Valley, CA, for a fire break. This was the twelfth day of work, and the employees were hauling the cut trees and placing them in the chipper within the assigned area for the day. Employee #1 was operating a Bobcat T300 loader with a grapple bucket attachment. He was using it to push the cut trees down the hill closer to the clearing. In that way, they could be grabbed from below. Earlier in the day, Employee #1 had been operating the Bobcat. His foreman, who was one of his coworkers, was helping him by tying the trees with a rope onto the grapple bucket of the Bobcat. After lunch, the foreman left the jobsite to retrieve another Bobcat. He left Employee #1 and one coworker to continue work. Employee #1 had been descending and ascending a 29 to 40 degree sloped area to push the trees down the slope. This was necessary, because he did not have help to tie the trees to the bucket. During one of his trips, Employee #1 had descended forward down the hill and then reversed back. As he turned to drive across the slope, he started to lose control of the loader. The Bobcat rolled down the ravine approximately 150 feet (45.7 meters) before landing on top of some trees. Employee #1 was transported to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, where he was hospitalized for seven days. He sustained multiple skull fractures, a compression fracture of his T12 vertebra, and a fracture of the tympanic part of his right temporal bone. Because of the last injury, he lost his hearing in his right ear.
Keywords: fracture, tree felling, roll-over, hearing loss, tree, loader, vertebra, slope, work surface, unstable position
Employee # Inspection Age Sex Degree Nature Occupation
1 315315804 Hospitalized injury Fracture Groundskeepers and gardeners, except farm

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