Inspection Detail

Inspection: 315562603 - Brookman Iron And Metals, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Pittsburgh Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on November 15, 2011, Employee #1 was torch cutting apart a bulldozer bucket in an outdoor location at a scrap yard. The metal was to be sent to a mill for melt down. The bucket was not attached to the bulldozer and stood alone on its bottom with the open end facing west. He made strategic torch cuts in several inside and outside locations of the bucket and then went inside the bucket to continue cutting, when the bucket collapse. Though working alone on this particular project, a coworker was torch cutting apart bulldozer tracks and steel beams approximately 17.5 ft away and had heard the sound of collapsed bucket. The coworker went to the location of Employee #1 and attempted to free him, but could not, so he called two additional coworkers for assistance. Both employees arrived and attempted to manually lift the top of the bucket; however, they were not able to do so. They then used a crane to raise the top of the bucket to a height from which they could extract Employee #1 from the debris. Emergency medical personnel were summoned. They arrived and transported him to a medical center, where he later died. At the time the incident, there were no safety controls in place to support the top of the bucket while working inside of it.

Keywords: UNSECURED, STRUCK BY, FALLING OBJECT, UNSTABLE POSITION