16.03.2011

Crushing accident at store

A man has died from a crushing accident , after he was inadvertently pushed onto the controls of the boom lift he was using after coming into contact with the front overhanging wall of a Staples store in Sacramento yesterday.

The man, Zeke Odom, 40, worked for Century Lighting & Electric and was using a utility truck to reach lights on the store, some time before 7:00 in the morning. Woking alone, he was telescoping the platform towards the building with his back to it.
It appears that his back came into contact with an overhanging portion of the external façade which pressed him against the controls of the machine, which then continued to operate and crush him against the building.
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The scene after the rescue services arrived

Another worker arrived around 7 a.m. and found the man pinned between the overhang and the control box. His hands were still on the controls and his foot firmly on the dead-man pedal.

Vertikal Comment

There are a number of issues here which are clear and obvious, however the sad thing is that a totally avoidable fatality has occurred.

While he should not have been working with no one in the vicinity that might have been able to help, the fact is if he had been clearly aware of the dangers of telescoping a boom without looking above and below as well as ahead, particularly when going backwards, he might be alive today.

While there are now some excellent technical solutions to help prevent this type of accident, it is also absolutely essential that operators are properly trained to be spatial aware and to understand what can happen if they don’t focus on potential overhead hazard points.