Inspection Detail

Inspection: 301517090 - Billings Freight Systems, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Nc Department Of Labor - Charlotte

Investigation Summary

At approximately noon on August 14, 1996, Employee #1, a truck driver for Billings Freight Systems, Inc., pulled his tractor into Distribution Marketing Systems, Inc. (DMSI), to pick up empty trailer #3055. On his way out, he stopped at the guard house where he told the guard for DMSI that he was going to use the phone to call Billing's dispatcher in Gastonia. Employee #1 then walked to the rear of the tractor trailer. A few minutes later, a driver for Roadway Express pulled up to the guard house and stated that Employee #1 was laying on the ground. The guard found Employee #1 unconscious and dialed 911 from his guard house. Paramedics arrived in approximately 6 to 10 minutes and transported Employee #1 to the Carolinas Medical Center. He had sustained a blunt force injury to the head, including skull fractures and internal bleeding, from which he died seven days later. The guard noted that the rolling door was jammed open and that half of Employee #1's glasses was in the trailer and the other half was shattered on the ground. It is speculated that when Employee #1 went to the rear of the tractor trailer to close the rolling door, it became stuck. In his attempt to unjam it, he may have fallen off the 46.5 in. trailer onto the concrete ground surface.

Keywords: FRACTURE, UNCONSCIOUSNESS, STUCK, TRAILER TRUCK, SKULL, FALL, TRACTOR TRAILER, LOST BALANCE, DOOR, TRUCK DRIVER