Saturday, January 31, 2015

3 WORKERS INJURED AFTER FALL IN HAMDEN, CONNECTICUT. USING A FORKLIFT AND A PALLET IS INHERENTLY DANGEROUS.

 


3 WORKERS INJURED AFTER FALL IN HAMDEN, CONNECTICUT. USING A FORKLIFT AND A PALLET IS INHERENTLY DANGEROUS.

January 22, 2015

Hamden, Connecticut

A prime example of how dangerous using a forklift and pallet can be occurred on Thursday, in Hamden, Connecticut, when three men fell around 18-feet (six meters) and ended up in hospital with serious injuries.

The three, all related, were working on the roof for an Atlanta-based contractor, and were using a pallet on the forks of a telehandler as their method for reaching the roof. We understand that they were coming down when the operator – the wife of one of the men – appears to have moved the machine at height over a very uneven piece of ground, throwing all three to the ground.

Fork and Pallett Wrong 1-30-2015 3-52-45 PM
 
 The scene after the injured men were taken away

Fortunately the earth was not stone or concrete, so they look as though they will survive, but with very serious injuries.

The incident occurred directly alongside a railway line, causing Amtrak to shut down the nearside track. The telehandler, a Genie rented from Smedley Aerial lifts, was not affected by the incident and appeared to be in good working order. The cause was almost certainly due to ignorance and unsafe work practices. 

OSHA did visit the scene in order to investigate the cause and have so far said nothing.

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3 WORKERS INJURED AFTER FALL IN HAMDEN, CONNECTICUT

HAMDEN, CT (WFSB) - Three workers suffered non-life-threatening injuries after falling at a construction site in Hamden on Thursday afternoon, police said.
Police said the unidentified workers for KDB out of Atlanta, Ga. fell nearly 30 feet from an aerial lift in the 2300 block of State Street around 2 p.m.

All three workers were rushed to Yale-New Haven Hospital for treatment of "serious injuries," police said. No names of those injured were released by police. 

Police said that the three workers were climbing off of a roof of a building that is under construction when as they attempted to get onto a pallet, the "machine shifted" and caused them to fall.  

Responding firefighters said none of them had on helmets when they arrived on scene. But authorities said that doesn't mean they did not have them on, they could have been knocked off during the fall.

Because the incident happened near railroad tracks, Amtrak officials did shut down track one in the State Street area. However, Amtrak officials tweeted that there was "no impact on Amtrak train service." 

The cause of the fall is under investigation. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been notified of the incident and are expected to respond to the scene.