Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1440012.015 - 317725948 - Tony Holman Logging Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Medford

Investigation Summary

At 7:00 a.m. on October 21, 2019, an employee (lowboy driver) and a coworker (loader operator) working for a logging company were loading a log loader onto a low-boy. The employee exited the cab and unhooked the trailer from the truck in order for the coworker to drive the machine onto the lowboy. Once the machine was on the lowboy, the employee instructed the coworker to grab the trailer's boom/boom rest with his grapples. The boom rest is located at the rear of the trailer. The purpose of the boom rest is to support the log loader's lowered boom when it is being transported down the road. The coworker who is the supervisor grabbed the boom rest with his grapples. The two needed to raise the boom rest slightly in order to get the pins out that secure the boom rest to the trailer. The employee was standing next to the trailer waiting for the coworker to raise the boom rest in order to remove the pins. The coworker raised the boom rest up and the employee was able to remove the pins. Once he had finished removing the pins, the employee was still standing next to the trailer. The coworker started to lift the boom rest with the grapples of the log loader to complete the positioning process when the boom rest slipped out of the grapples slamming back down onto the trailer. The boom rest hit very hard causing the boom rest to bounce several feet. When the boom rest bounced back up, it hit the employee in the head. The employee was wearing a metal hard hat but the boom rest hit the front of the hard hat so hard it bent the brim to where the brim was touching the top portion of his hat. The employee sustained frontal head trauma. The coworker stated he jumped out of the cab of the machine and saw the employee laying on the ground unconscious. After briefly checking on the employee, the coworker called 911. The Sheriff's department and EMS arrived on site. The employee was transported to the hospital, where he was admitted due to the head injury.

Keywords: Blunt force, Blunt force trauma, Boom, Concussion, Equipment Operator, Forehead, Hard Hat, Head, Loader, Loading, Log Loader, Logging, Material Handling, PPE, Slip, Struck By, Supervisor, Trailer, Truck Driver, Unconsciousness, Unstable Position