Cal/OSHA fined a roofing and building supply company $62,320 for multiple serious accident-related safety violations following an investigation of a fatal forklift accident in San Francisco.
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On November 21, 2016, a 60-year-old forklift operator was transferring building supplies from the company’s warehouse to a customer’s vehicle. When the forklift descended a sloped ramp, a bag of mortar mix fell off of the load and blocked the front right wheel. The operator reversed the forklift to free the bag of mortar and while doing so, turned the steering wheel so that the back wheel went over the edge of the ramp, tipping the five-ton forklift over. The worker attempted to jump out of the cab and was fatally crushed by the forklift.
“This incident could have been prevented had the employer effectively evaluated the workplace for hazards, which would have identified the unguarded edge of the ramp that exposed the forklift to tipping,” said Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum. “The worker should have been properly trained to stay seated with the seatbelt fastened in the event of a tip over.”
The six violations cited in Cal/OSHA’s investigation included three classified as serious accident-related, one serious, one regulatory and one general. The serious accident-related violations were cited for the company’s failure to ensure:
- The proper use of a forklift seatbelt,
- That the forklift operator was certified to operate the vehicle safely, and
- That industrial ramps had at least an 8-inch curb or equivalent installed along the open edges to prevent the wheels of industrial trucks from running off the ramp.
The serious violation was cited for the employer’s failure to inspect and identify hazards in the workplace, provide written safety instruction on industrial trucks in a language readily understandable by all of the workers, and for failure to ensure that all affected workers comply with the forklift safety requirements at the worksite. A serious violation is cited when there is a realistic possibility that death or serious harm could result from the actual hazardous condition.
Should the forklift operator did not jump assuming that his seat belt was properly fastened, don’t you think the scenario will change? I usually fastened the seat belt as indicated in my 10-hour OSHA online course.
No one has asked why the mortar mix bag fell off!!! Load security!!!!!
Apparently travelling with the load down-hill; one of the many “thou shalt not”s when dealing with PIT’s.
Going downhill with an unsecured load is like asking someone to push a rope uphill..
I’m retired now however, when I think back to my youth and the insane and utterly stupid things I did all in the name of “getting the job done” I wish I could shake my younger self to wake up and pay attention to safety more. One dumb azz thing we did was ride the top of an elevator cab so that we could clean the “all glass” elevator shaft that was feature element in the building. Since it was the employer’s building and we had all the correct keys to operate the elevator from the top side we got the job done. Fortunately by the grace of good Karma… in all the 10-years I worked in the maintenance/engineering dept. only one slight “bump” occurred. Another foolish act was operating an extendable crane…commonly called a “condor”, to clean/trim the 4-story high palm trees surround the exterior of the building and then drive the “condor” into the building in order to clean the clerestory and related windows then install Christmas décor that hang from the 4-story high ceilings. None of the few guys operating the crane ever had any training…..at all. The crane was a rental piece of equipment that when delivered to the site required a signature stating the renter was trained and knowledgeable about the crane.The only training we had was reading the directions on the control panel on which levers turned the front wheels, Forward and Reverse, and extending the boom shaft or tilting the basket that held us. The boom extended up to 80 Feet. This all occurred inside of a shopping center in the wee hours. As far as I know I was the only one that backed into a plate glass storefront and had the embarrassing task of informing the store owner first thing in the morning when they arrived. Long story but the point is that untrained operation of heavy equipment occurs everyday in the United States because of poor training or incompetent supervisors that fail to take the time to read the safety rules that most corporations provide to their employees via each properties General Manager and then on down the pecking order to shift supervisors and ultimately the low man on the totem pole employee.