Inspection Detail

Inspection: 311595516 - High Concrete Group, Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Department Of Labor, Licensing, And Regulation Division Of Labor And Industry Maryland Occupational Safety And Health

Investigation Summary

On November 7, 2011, Employees #1 and #2, father and son construction laborers, were off-loading a 76,750 lb, 60 ft 2 in. long by 14 ft 11-3/4 in. tall precast concrete section from a flatbed trailer. The concrete precast section was brought to the site the day before at approximately 4:15 p.m., the cab unhitched, and the trailer parked on a slight slope on very solid ground. The concrete section was on two leveling Ts with the right side down and the left side up in the air. Employees #1 and #2 got all of the rigging out and the hardware that went with the concrete section. The front and back pins on the support Ts were pulled out. Employee #1 climbed a ladder to the top of the concrete section and connected a cable and hook to the rear right lifting loop. He then motioned the crane operator to start lifting, which would initiate the leveling process. When the leveling started, Employee #1, who was still atop the concrete section, was holding the cables with the hooks to keep them from swinging. Employee #2 was on his knees by the rear support T-bracket under the concrete section. When the leveling process was completed, Employee #1, on top of the section, felt a weird sensation and Employee #2, underneath, felt the trailer starting to lift up. The front headboard of the flatbed trailer started to rise up, turning right to left, and began to overturn. Employee #1 held onto the cables for support. As the trailer turned over, he thought that he would be thrown over the fence out into the roadway with oncoming traffic, so he decided to jump off the back of the trailer. He landed on his feet, went to his knees, and then fell onto his right side, striking a fence post. Employee #2 was able to climb up the side of the trailer that was rising up in the air, ending up on a side rail of the trailer. While he was climbing his hard hat fell off, but he grabbed it and put it back on his head. A coworker from another company was yelling something to him and, as he bent down to hear better, three entangled cables and hooks swung around in the wind and struck the top of his hard hat, causing a 3 in. long crack. The blow dazed him and he fell/jumped forward to the ground. Employee #1 sustained a fractured third lumbar vertebra in his back , and multiple contusions; he was transported to the emergency room at University Hospital. Employee #2 suffered a mild concussion, a cervical sprain, a lumbar sprain, and multiple contusions; he was transported to Shock Trauma. At the time this report was written, both employees were to be off work for at least one month. Employee #1 and #2 had been trained on rigging and lifting heavy loads, and they had made numerous lifts similar to this one. Subsequent evaluation determined that the employees were in a hazardous position, i.e., being on the trailer while the leveling process was taking place. New procedures were implemented after the accident.

Keywords: FRACTURE, WORK RULES, CONSTRUCTION, BACK, FALL, OFF LOADING, CONCUSSION, TRAILER, OVERTURN, UNSTABLE POSITION