SITE FATALITY
Unfortunately a concrete sub-contractor was killed on the East Campus site earlier today.
I wasn’t on site at the time, and the accident didn’t occur on the JOC project. However there are four construction projects taking place concurrently across the East Campus site, all of which utilise the same access routes and co-ordinate closely. The incident took place only a few meters from the JOC building, and JOC personnel where amongst the first on the scene, and to attempt first aid. All USACE personnel are based in the same site-office, and a number of them (including Safety Managers) are double-hatted across two or more projects. The accident appears to have been entirely preventable.
In my first blog I made the following off-handed remark with regards to site traffic: “someone had a cunning plan which involves not enforcing any sort of traffic management plan and only vaguely checking who moves to and from site, which has alleviated some of the congestion”. Perhaps traffic management was a contributing factor, and maybe I should have pushed this further at the time rather than brushing it aside. The fact is someone who turned up to work today isn’t going home. Here are the salient facts as I understand them at the moment:
A dumper truck arrived on site and was directed to the appropriate area. When he arrived at the designated spot he pulled off the site access road in a forwards direction in order to discharge his aggregate. At which point he became stuck. A recovery vehicle was called for, which, after attaching a sling to the rear axle of the dumper truck pulled the truck back onto the access road. The sub-contractor in question moved forwards and crawled under the truck in order to detach the haul-sling from the rear-axle. The driver of the dumper truck, unaware of this, put the vehicle in reverse and accelerated off in order to maneuver his vehicle around so that he was facing the right direction to exit the site. Workers quickly stopped the driver, but by this time it was too late. The sub-contractor was crushed under the wheels of the truck, and despite attempts could not be revived. I haven’t been able to ascertain what if any hand signals or communications there were between the truck driver and any banksmen/site workers, or if there had been any specific (beyond the obvious) breaches of site safety protocol.
Obviously work was stopped across the site for the day and an investigation has been opened, which may provide some answers.
It seems slightly macabre to turn this into a discussion topic so soon after the event, shocking as it is. I’m sure lots will come out of the investigation, but from what I understand so far it looks like a combination of poor communication, corner-cutting and an uncertain/ever-evolving traffic management plan. This accident should not have happened!
I’ll update as the situation develops, but if anyone has any initial thoughts please let me know.
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Hi mate,
It’s obviously horrible when something like this happens, especially as you say if it was preventable. It will be interesting to hear the lessons that come out of this and what changes (if any) are implemented on your site. I think we have probably all seen something that needs to change during our placements and it is unfortunate that this has happened.
Does it feel like there is a blame culture on the site or is the root cause of the incident the primary concern?
All the best.
I am intrigued that you have so much information already. How effective have the SOPs been for controlling rumour, notifying and supporting family and fellow workers? Do you feel that this is regarded as a significant failing or just an unfortunate event? In UK the site would be in the hands of the HSE, what is the US process?
Chris, too early to say, I’ve only heard the USACE angle so far. As you can imagine Friday wasn’t the day to go rooting around for information. I suspect getting to the root cause will be of primacy, it looks like there may have been some aspect of ‘self-infliction’ which may complicate things. I don’t have enough information at this stage.
Richard, I was off site most of Friday at an ‘Officer Development’ day. My information came from the SITREP sent to the District Commander (also on the development day), and from speaking to people when I got back to the office later in the afternoon. Too early to comment on your other points, but I will investigate.