MEC&F Expert Engineers : HIGHWAY WORKER CRUSHED AND KILLED BY SWINGING BACKHOE BOOM

Saturday, February 28, 2015

HIGHWAY WORKER CRUSHED AND KILLED BY SWINGING BACKHOE BOOM






A 47-year-old road construction worker was killed while working on the ground alongside a backhoe. 

The employer was a highway paving contractor that worked on projects throughout the Pacific Northwest. The firm employed 60 Oregon union workers, with 20 at the jobsite where this incident occurred. The firm hired apprentice and journeyman workers, and relied on the union to qualify and provide training for equipment operators.

The employer had a comprehensive generic safety and health policy, which included job descriptions with job safety analyses. The job information instructed that no one should be allowed in hazard areas, but did not specify the pinch point between the backhoe’s boom and the stabilizer as a hazard area. A warning label was visible on the back of the backhoe, however, bearing a graphic image and the message: STAY CLEAR OF THIS AREA WHEN MACHINE IS OPERATING. YOU CAN BE CRUSHED BY SWINGING BOOM. 

The firm had a safety committee and held regular meetings. New employees received a safety vest and hard hat, a tour of the jobsite, showing the locations of first-aid kits and fire extinguishers, and a review of job responsibilities.
The journeyman equipment operator, hired through the local union hall, had worked only two days with the paving contractor prior to the incident. Safety training and certification was conducted through the union. The operator was exempted from the union training program, because he had 3 years of experience as a journeyman excavation equipment operator with his previous employer.

The worker was a journeyman equipment operator working together with an apprentice, who operated the backhoe. The two road workers were preparing to pull pins from concrete barricades along the roadside, so they could be moved. 

The journeyman had been on the job with this company only 2 days, and the two workers had never worked together before. The journeyman retrieved two heavy steel pin pullers and a chain from the front loader bucket and walked to the rear of the backhoe, where he tossed one of the pin pullers into the cab.
The pin puller fell on a foot pedal that controlled the backhoe boom swing, and the boom instantly swung sideways and crushed the journeyman operator against the raised rear stabilizer. 

The apprentice operator heard the journeyman yell and swiveled to the rear, where he saw the heavy pin on top of the foot-pedal control. He swung the boom back to its neutral position to free the journeyman and called for emergency help. 

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

CAUSE OF DEATH:
Crushing chest trauma 

RECOMMENDATIONS
a.   Workers on the ground near an operating backhoe must never stand in the pinch point of the backhoe boom.
b.   Foot-pedal controls on a backhoe should have a guard or other disabling mechanism to prevent accidental activation of the boom when not in use.
c.   Employers must regularly reinforce safety training, even with experienced workers, and make sure safety materials and equipment operator instructions are reviewed for each specific machine used by a worker.

REFERENCES
1.   Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation.
2.   Iowa FACE. (2003). Operator crushed by backhoe boom while doing maintenance [Case No. 99IA09301]. Available online: www.cdc.gov/niosh/face/stateface/ia/99ia093.html
3.   Oklahoma FACE. (n.d.). A concrete saw operator was killed when he was pinned between the boom and the rear of a backhoe [Case No. 03-OK-096-01]. Available online: www.cdc.gov/niosh/face/stateface/ok/03ok096.html
4.   National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. (2004). Preventing injuries when working with hydraulic excavators and backhoe Loaders [Pub. 2004-107]. Available online: www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/wp-solutions/2004-107/default.html
5.   Oregon OSHA. Backhoe safety [VHS #1269]. AudioVisual Library. Order online: www.cbs.state.or.us/external/osha/standards/avlibad.html