OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14560114
PRE DESIGN BUILDING SYSTEMS INC
AGAWAM, MA—
Event description
TIPPING STEEL RAFTER BEAMS
Investigation abstract
FOUR EMPLOYEES WERE USING A CASE 580CK FORKLIFT TRUCK TO UNLOAD STEEL BEAMS FROM WHEN THE FOURTH BEAM WAS PLACED ON THE 2"X4"S EMPLOYEE #4 WENT TO REMOVE THE C-C LAMPS FROM THE FORKS. AS HE WAS BENDING OVER REMOVING THE SECOND CLAMP THE FIRST BEAM TIPPED OVER UNEXPECTEDLY TOWARD THE OTHERS SETTING OFF A DOMINO EFFECT. TH E FOURTH BEAM STRUCK EMPLOYEE #3 IN THE HEAD PINNING HIM BETWEEN THE BEAMS AND T HE FORKLIFT TRUCK. WHAT CAUSED THE FIRST BEAM TO TIP OVER IS NOT KNOWN BUT THE B EAMS SHOULD HAVE BEEN PLACED ON HARDWOOD 4"X4"S AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN LAID ON THE IR WIDE 34" SURFACE OR AT LEAST THE BEAMS SHOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER SUPPORTED TO P REVENT TIPPING. A FLAT BED TRUCK WHEN THE BEAMS TIPPED AND KILLED ONE OF WORKERS. EMPLOYEE #1 O PERATED THE FORKLIFT EMPLOYEE #2 REAMINED ON THE FLATBED AND EMPLOYEES #3 AND 4 WERE ON THE GROUND TO HELP PLACE THE STEEL BEAMS FOUR 40-FOOT LONG RAFTER BEAMS EACH WITH A 34" WEB AND A 7" FLANGE WERE REMOVED ONE AT A TIME BY C-CLAMPING EAC H BEAM TO THE FORKS OF THE CASE TRUCK AND THEN RESTING EACH BEAM ON ITS NARROW 7 " FLANGE ON TOP OF TWO 2"X4" LENGHTS OF SOFTWOOD THAT WERE IN TURN ALSO PLACED O N THEIR NARROW 1 1/2" SURFACE. THE BEAMS WERE PLACED ABOUT 6" FROM EACH OTHER AN D EACH WAS PROPPED ON ITS RIGHT END BY WOODEN 2"X4"S POSITIONED BY EMPLOYEE #3.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 23 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 28
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 11
- Environmental factor
- 6
- Task assigned
- 2
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.