Inspection Detail

Inspection: 301116927 - Ssa Cooper, Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Columbia Area Office

Investigation Summary

Employee #1 and three other longshoremen were working the "pan." In this process, two longshoremen would stand on either side of the "pan," a covered landing place for paper rolls to be placed upon, holding straps (slings for the rolls of paper to be placed into by the lift truck). Two lift truck operators would alternate getting rolls of paper from the warehouse area and bringing them to the "pan." The rolls would be placed into the straps that the longshoremen were holding over the "pan." The load of rolls would then be lowered onto the pan. The lift operator would back away and return to get more rolls of paper. The longshoremen working the pan would then rig the slings to a crane and the crane would move the load of paper rolls onto the barge. At the time of the accident, Employee #1 and three coworkers were holding the straps out for the lift operator to place the stack of four paper rolls onto when the stack of rolls began to fall. The top roll landed on Employee #1's head, a second roll landed on his abdomen, and a third roll landed on his legs. Employee #1 was killed. Further investigation revealed that the lift truck was fitted with a clamp device that was only wide enough to grasp portions of the bottom two rolls. In addition, the upper two rolls were balanced on the bottom two rolls with plastic strapping used to keep the rolls in alignment. The strapping was not strong enough to hold the four rolls in place. Each roll weighed approximately 740 to 766 pounds.

Keywords: LONGSHORING, HEAD, ABDOMEN, PAPER ROLL, INDUSTRIAL TRUCK, STRUCK BY, SLING, FALLING OBJECT, LEG, UNSTABLE LOAD