摘要: |
A 29 year old female flag person died from injuries suffered when she was run over by the truck she had been using to service portable toilet facilities. The victim served generally as an oil field roustabout which included maintenance of toilet facilities in the area. While servicing these facilities, she drove a truck from facility to facility and left the truck parked while servicing the units. She reported her location by radio during mid-afternoon and was not heard from after that. During the late afternoon, an oil field employee noticed her truck which was apparently unattended and went to investigate. He found the driver's side door open, the motor running, and the radio playing. Tracing the truck tracks back up the hill, he discovered the deceased some two hours after her last radio contact. On scene evidence suggests that the victim had left the truck parked with the motor running while she did her work, and that it rolled down the hill as she was either crossing in front of it or trying to reach the driver's door to stop the vehicle. She was caught under the wheels of the vehicle and apparently died within minutes of being run over. Employers may be able to minimize the potential for occurrence of this type of incident through the following precautions: (1) Company vehicles that are available for employee use should be periodically inspected and maintained for safety. (2) When employees who routinely report locations fail to report as expected, dispatchers should be alerted to contact them to ascertain that they are safe. (3) Vehicles should not be left standing with their motors running while other work is being done. |