Inspection Detail

Inspection: 310100029 - United Parcel Service

Inspection Information - Office: Foster City District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 8:30 p.m. on May 25, 2011, an employee was assigned to work on Sort 1, Sort 2 and Sort 3 which was not his normal working area. However, he had worked once in this area about 2 months ago. At the sort area, packages were being sorted out and placed on the conveyor belt PD-6. The PD- 6 conveyor belt had several sections with various elevations. One of the PD-6's section-3 was 44-ft 8-in long incline, at approximately 20 degree slope, reached up to the elevation of 18-ft 5-in. high above the ground and then connected to a small flat section-4 where this PD-6 turns around to its left. At this work area, the employee was also responsible to clear the jams from the PD-6 conveyor belt as needed. At around 8:31 p.m., the employee called Coworker #1, flow controller, on his radio to shut down the PD-6 due to a possible Jam up on the incline. The coworker turned off the power to PD-6 belt through a computerized system, by clicking a tab with the mouse on a computer screen. Coworker #2 who was far away at different area, noticed the employee climbing up on the PD-6 conveyor's section 3, at the top. Both sides of this conveyor were guarded with the cable-guardrails. The employee said that he remembered climbing up towards the top incline, PD-6, section-3, after that he does not remember what happened to him. Five or six minutes later, when Coworker #2 called Coworker #1 to inquire about the status of PD-6 conveyor, he learned that the employee did not call back to Coworker #1 to restart this conveyor. Then, Coworker #2 attempted to reach the employee via radio but got no response. At this point, Coworker #2 started looking for the employee and ultimately found the employee injured at different location, under M3 DF1-1 conveyor, which was approximately 10-12 feet away from the PD-6 conveyor. The employee was lying on the floor with his head- bleeding, in front of a fixed ladder located next to a vending machine. The employee was transported to San Francisco General Hospital where he was hospitalized for more than 24 hours and treated for fractured skull. The employee stated that he did not know what happened and why he ended up at that location next to the ladder. No witness interviewed knew whether the employee fell off the ladder or fell from any other higher structure above, possible another inclined conveyor M3 DF1-1, which was approximately 25 feet high above the ground. M3 DF1-1 was a 'dead conveyor' at that time which was connected to the right side of the PD-6's section-4. The M3 DF1-1 conveyor also had cable-guardrails on the both sides. The employee1 stated that there was no reason for him to go on the M3DF1-1 belt. At that point, it was hard to determine the cause of the accident. There was no evidence or witness to the accident. The employee was a part-time supervisor, working for United Parcel Service for the last 12 years. The employee stated that he was trained how to walk on the conveyors but he was not familiar with the methods of clearing jams at the PD-6 -3 conveyor, since that was not his normal working area.

Keywords: FRACTURE, HEAD, LADDER, SKULL, CONVEYOR, CONCUSSION, CONVEYOR BELT