A 19-year-old male Hispanic laborer was killed after a 58x48x
5-inch, 1,200-pound slab of concrete
struck his head. The incident occurred
at a residential, northern NJ neighborhood sidewalk.
The
victim had worked for this small landscaping and construction company for
approximately two weeks. The company had
verbal on-the-job training only.
On the day of the
incident, a four-member crew was attempting to re-grade the ground beneath a
concrete sidewalk. In order to
lift a slab, the four-worker crew would pry it up slightly (using a pry bar)
and place large stones underneath to hold it in place. The crew would then
connect a 40-foot-long chain to the bucket hook of a skid-steer loader and wrap
the other end around the slab, connecting it to itself with a 2” pelican hook.
The chained slab would then be lifted via the skid-steer
loader and moved away, allowing the ground underneath the slab to be properly
graded.
The chained slab was then placed on the ground and the crew
began to re-grade the soil. When
finished, the slab was being walked back into place by the victim and lowered.
During this time, for an unknown reason the victim knelt
down, perhaps to fix part of the re-grade, and asked the skid-steer operator to
raise the slab back up. As the slab was lifted, it swung and hit him in the
head. The victim sustained blunt force trauma injuries, including a fractured
skull. The victim died minutes after the injury.
A crewman called 9-1-1 and the police arrived on the scene
immediately.
Contributing Factors
1.
No personal protective equipment
2.
Training/work practices
3.
Unsecured suspended load
Investigators recommend that these safety guidelines be
followed to prevent similar incidents:
1.
Utilize an alternative method of moving concrete
slabs when attempting to re-grade ground underneath
2.
Workers should be provided and wear appropriate
personal protective equipment at all times.
3.
A safety and health plan based on a job hazard
analysis should be developed by the employer and followed where workers are
assigned tasks.
REFERENCES
1.
Concrete Construction: Nominal Weight of
Standard Concrete. Available at: http://www.concreteconstruction.net/concrete-articles/nominal-weight-of-standard-concrete.aspx.
Accessed September, 2013
2.
How to Repair Sidewalks. Available at: http://www.oregonohio.org/Sidewalks/how-to-repairsidewalks.html.
Accessed, August, 2013.
3.
Sidewalk Leveling. Available at: http://www.heightslibrary.org/materials/hrrc/11Asphalt_Concrete/CONCRETE/SIDEWALK_LEVELING.pdf.
Accessed, August, 2013
4.
Leveling a sidewalk slab [modified]. Available
at: http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/19/nyregion/home-clinic-leveling-a-sidewalk-slab.html.
Accessed, August 2013.
5.
Job Hazard Analysis. US Department of Labor
Publication # OSHA-3071, 1998 (revised). USDOL, OSHA Publications, PO Box
37535, Washington DC 20013-7535