Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300798592 - Mark Nolan Trucking Co

Inspection Information - Office: Fresno District Office

Investigation Summary

At 6:45 p.m. on December 29, 1999, Employee #1 (a truck driver of an independent trucking company) was delivering a load of 16-in.-diameter PVC pipe to a highway construction site north of Clovis with a Kenworth flatbed tractor trailer. The pipe was loaded in bundles of six and each pipe weighed approximately 250 lbs. The bundles were stacked two bundles high and two bundles wide on the trailer. The employee parked in the designated unloading area at the site and released the straps holding the bundles of pipe. Another employee of the Rising Sun Company was using a Caterpiller Model IT62G loader equipped with forks to remove the bundles of pipe. As the loader operator began to remove the top bundle, the employee was on the other side of the trailer rolling up the straps used to secure the load. This was against accepted unloading procedures and the employee should have been near the cab of the truck. The loader operator lifted the top bundle and the tips of the forks struck the top bundle on the other side of the truck. That bundle became unstable and fell onto Employee #1, crushing and killing him.

Keywords: CRUSHED, INDUSTRIAL TRUCK, PIPE, STRUCK BY, FALLING OBJECT, TRUCK DRIVER