Inspection Detail

Inspection: 110344132 - Ace Transportation, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Baton Rouge Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 8:00 p.m. on December 10, 1994, Employee #1, a truck driver for Ace Transportation Inc., was working with a crane operated by an employee of H. Brown Machine Shop Inc., picking up 10 joints of 40 ft long 20 in. diameter steel pipe casing that had earlier fallen from a truck onto the roadway. The joints of pipe were being loaded onto a flatbed trailer that was pulled by a White Freightliner truck leased to Ace Transportation. The driver would connect the slings and hooks to the pipe at ground level and then get up on the flatbed trailer to remove the hooks from the pipe. The work was going on into the early evening hours. The crane had lights on the boom and the front of the cab. The crane operator said he had sufficient light to do the work. As the last joint was being put on the flatbed, Employee #1 climbed up on the load to unhook it. The load of pipe shifted and started rolling, knocking him off the trailer. Several pipe joints rolled onto him when he was on the ground. He suffered crushing injuries and died. Louisiana state police and Acadia Parish Sheriff's Office were at the site before and after the accident because the pipe was on and near a state highway.

Keywords: UNSECURED, WORK RULES, LOAD SHIFT, CRUSHED, PIPE, STRUCK BY, FALLING OBJECT, FLATBED TRUCK, TRUCK DRIVER, UNSTABLE LOAD