On July 2, 1998, a 37-year-old male equipment operator (the victim) was crushed in the cab of a track-mounted hydraulic excavator (Backhoe) when a brick chimney toppled over and struck the machine during demolition operations. The victim and a co-worker, a truck driver, were in the final stages of demolishing a 2 1/2-story stone and stone veneer house. They had demolished about 75 percent of the structure, leaving a large brick chimney between 26 and 30 feet high and part of a stone wall. As the victim proceeded to knock down the rest of the wall, the co-worker seated inside the truck saw the chimney sway and topple en masse, falling directly across the operator's cab of the machine. The weight of the chimeny crushed the cab with the victim inside.
Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report: Equipment Operator Crushed When Chimney Falls on Hydraulic Excavator, Virginia, February 24, 1999
1999
8 pages
Report
No indication
English