Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report for New Jersey: 69-Year-Old Sanitation Worker Run Over by Refuse Truck

摘要

On October 17, 2008, a 69-year-old male private sector sanitation worker died after he was run over by a refuse truck. On the day of the incident, the victim and one other worker were collecting tree brush in a rural southern New Jersey community. The workers had stopped the rear-loading compaction truck and began to load brush into the rear compartment. Soon after initiating the compaction cycle of the truck, the vehicle began to move, uncontrolled, in a forward direction. Both workers immediately ran after the vehicle, and the decedent fell under the truck and was crushed to death. NJ FACE investigators recommend that these safety guidelines be followed to prevent similar incidents: (1) Sanitation workers should be trained on the safe procedures for operating and loading sanitation trucks, including auxiliary compactor equipment. (2) Sanitation truck drivers should not leave the vehicle unless needed as a spotter; in which case, the gear shift should be set to 'neutral' and the emergency brakes engaged. (3) Equipment should be in good working order, and safety interlocks or other control mechanisms should never be modified, disconnected, or disengaged. (4) A safety and health plan based on a job hazard analysis should be developed by the employer and followed for each trash route.