Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report for California: Laborer Dies When Run Over By Heavy Equipment

You are here: Homepage > Search

Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report for California: Laborer Dies When Run Over By Heavy Equipment

A 19-year old male laborer (decedent) died after being run over by the rear wheels of the front trailer of a tractor/trailer rig at a construction site. The victim was attempting to clean the dirt from the right rear fender of the double trailer rig that was being loaded by an excavator. The decedent walked from the left side and around the back of the tractor trailer rig to perform the cleaning. The decedent was standing in front of the rear wheels when the tractor/trailer driver begin to drive off. The excavator operator normally sounds one horn to move and two to stop to inform the truck driver of what movements he should make. The truck driver indicated he heard a horn and begin to drive away. The excavator operator stated that he did not sound the horn. The excavator operator saw the decedent being run over and sounded his horn twice to attempt to get the truck driver to stop. The decedent was not wearing a high visibility garment. The CA/FACE investigator concluded that, in order to prevent future occurrences, employers should: (1) ensure employees assigned tractor/trailer cleaning duties do so away from the loading site and with the truck drivers knowledge. (2) ensure employees do not stand in front of the direction of travel of any machine capable of movement. (3) have traffic move only at the direction of a traffic controller at sites where traffic movement may be dangerous to employees. In addition, heavy machinery manufacturers should: (4) design a machine's warning horn and backup alarm to be extraordinarily distinct.