Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report: Hispanic Construction Laborer Dies and Two Coworkers Are Injured After Falling 10 Feet From an Unsecured Box on the Forks of a Forklift in North Carolina

摘要

On August 26, 2002, a 23-year-old Hispanic construction laborer (the victim) died and two coworkers were injured after falling 10 feet to the ground from inside an unsecured wooden box elevated on the forks of a rough terrain forklift. The victims employer was a roofing, framing, and masonry subcontractor that had been in business for 17 years. The company employed 49 full-time employees. Two masonry crews had been working at the incident site for 2 months placing and washing brick on the exterior walls of five recently completed buildings. The work shift started at 6:30 a.m. and ended at approximately 4:30 p.m daily. The victim had moved from Mexico to the United States and had been working for the company as a laborer for 2 months before the incident. The victims primary language was Spanish. One of the injured coworkers primary language was Spanish. The other injured coworkers primary language was English. The foreman who lifted the workers with the forklift spoke both English and Spanish. In September 2002, officials of the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Administration (NC OSHA) notified the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Division of Safety Research (DSR), of the incident. On December 2, 2002, a DSR safety and occupational heath specialist conducted an investigation of the incident and reviewed incident circumstances with the NC OSHA compliance officer assigned to the case.