A 64-year-old, part-time farmer was working in the machinery shed on his farm late in the spring of 2004. He was repairing the hydraulic cylinder lift system for the box on a tandem wheel dump trailer. He used a skid steer equipped with a pallet fork attachment to lift and hold the front of the trailer box in a raised position. This provided clearance for the farmer to access the hydraulic cylinder and lift linkage area under the middle of the dump trailer box. The man was working alone in his machine shed at the time of the incident. He had disconnected the hydraulic cylinder from the underside of the trailer box. The skid steer forks reaching in from outside the doorway held the front of the box in an elevated position similar to when a load is being dumped from the wagon box. As he leaned across the trailer frame under the box to remove the hydraulic cylinder, the trailer moved rearward. The front edge of the wagon slipped off the forks of the skid steer and the trailer box fell suddenly. The man was crushed over the lift linkage and frame by the underside of the trailer box. A few moments after the incident a relative discovered the farmer trapped under the wagon's box. Emergency crews were summoned. They used jacks and struts to secure both the wagon and the raised lift arms of the skid steer. Resuscitative efforts were not successful and the farmer was pronounced dead at the scene. Recommendations: (1) Dump trailers should be equipped with rigid mechanical means to secure the trailer box in a raised position and they must be put into place without entering the area under the raised wagon box before making inspections, adjustments, or repairs under a raised box. (2) Persons planning repairs underneath a dump trailer should securely block (chock) the rear axle wheels to prevent unexpected, inadvertent movement of the trailer. (3) Persons inspecting or working on dump trailer lift systems should, when possible, choose to perform the task with the trailer box in its lowest position. (4) Dump trailers should be designed to accommodate, when practicable, service and replacement of the lift system while the trailer box is in its lowest position.
Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report for Iowa: Farmer Crushed Under Falling Dump Trailer Box While Repairing Lift Cylinder
2006
5 pages
Report
No indication
English
Environmental Health & Safety , Public Health & Industrial Medicine , Environmental & Occupational Factors , Farmers , Dump trailers , Equipment operators , Investigations , Cause of death , Accident analysis , Agricultural workers , Iowa , Traumatic injuries , Recommendations , Hydraulic cylinder lifts , Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE)