Iowa FACE Fatality Summaries: 2008
(Preliminary coding per 2007 NAICS, 2000 SOC, and 2007Ja ICD-10 subject to official verification.) (Code (SOC) is occupation at time of fatal incident, which may differ from usual occupation.)
Summary Case Report: A 48-year-old male farmer, unrestrained in a cabbed tractor towing an empty grain wagon, was ejected from the tractor and ended up underneath the fuel tanker straight truck which attempted to pass going downhill but collided with the tractor-wagon combination as the tractor turned left at a rural roadway intersection.
Summary Case Report: A farmer, age 66, turned his semi too sharply cutting the corner in a right turn from the farm drive onto the roadway. The semi-trailer's rear wheels entered the ditch, and the semi-tractor and trailer, with only its front compartment full of water, overturned to the right, upside down in the roadside ditch.
Summary Case Report: A semi-tractor with trailer driven by a male, age 47, ran off the interstate roadway mid-afternoon and crashed into a growth of trees and brush in the median.
Summary Case Report: A male, heavy-equipment operator, age 54, was disassembling the boom which was unsupported in horizontal position just above ground in preparation for transporting the crane. He was under the boom at the connection of the base section to first extension when the boom rigging pivoted around the upper pins when he hammered the lower pins out of the connection.
Summary Case Report: A 56-year-old electrical helper working alone moved the controls while working in a powered aerial-lift work platform. He was crushed between the controls and an I-beam of the building's structure when the platform moved.
Summary Case Report: A regional sales manager, age 46, was the restrained driver of an automobile that skidded out of control after cresting a hill on an ice-covered portion of the interstate roadway. The driver-side door of his car collided with the rear of a tow truck parked along the roadway in an area where several other vehicles were in the ditches after skidding off the road.
Summary Case Report: A restrained, 46-year-old, male driver of a semi-tractor with empty trailer was crushed in the truck tractor's cab when it went off the interstate roadway, through the median, and across the oncoming traffic lanes before nose-diving head-on into an embankment.
Summary Case Report: A male farmer, age 74, was run over while using jumper cables to boost start a tractor (with rear blade attached) when the tractor started in gear and moved forward.
Summary Case Report: A 42-year-old, black male (likely restrained) was the driver of a semi-tractor with empty trailer traveling erratically before it struck and skidded along an interstate guardrail, then fell to the river bank below and burst into flames.
Summary Case Report: A maintenance supervisor, age 41, fell 58 ft (17.7 m) from an overhead bridge crane's framework as he crossed over the crane's trolley after the metal melt furnace below was charged while he and a co-worker were working on the crane's electric motor.
Summary Case Report: A 49-year-old farmer was delivering hay to livestock in a pasture when his tractor, with narrow front axle and no roll-over protective structure (ROPS), overturned onto its top in a ravine pinning him underneath.
Summary Case Report: A male, metal salvage yard operator, age 62, was pinned for two days in frigid mud under the rear wheel and fender of his overturned tractor. The tractor with narrow front axle was equipped with a front-end loader fork attachment. There was no cab or roll-over protective structure (ROPS) on the tractor.
Summary Case Report: A 72-year-old farmer, using a pitchfork to pull apart large round bales of cornstalk stover as bedding for his horses, was crushed when a bale which was stacked horizonally on top of another bale rolled on top of him.
Summary Case Report: A 42-year-old, male Hispanic assigned to string fall protection cable through the links of chain that suspended the work platform inside a grain storage structure under construction fell 150 ft (47 m) from the platform to ground. He was wearing a harness with lanyard attached but the lanyard was not attached to an anchorage.
Summary Case Report: A truck driver, age 53, exited his dump truck to assist another truck that had become mired in mud at the dump site. He was talking on his cellular telephone as he walked toward the stuck truck and turned around just before being backed over by another dump truck backing into position to unload. He was struck by the mid-rear of the truck, which had a functioning back-up alarm.
Summary Case Report: A male, 53-year-old, was the driver of a semi-tractor with trailer that crossed the centerline and both oncoming lanes of traffic, went off the roadway, then turned and came back across all lanes of traffic before going through a fence and into a lake.
Summary Case Report: A male, residential construction company owner, age 70, fell approximately 9 ft (2.7 m) to the basement floor at a residential building site.
Summary Case Report: A male roofer, age 52, performing roofing work with friends for a friend for pay (no written contract) walked backwards off the edge of a two-story building and fell 25 ft (7.6 m) to the alley below.
Summary Case Report: A 48-year-old, female laborer checking the walls and ceiling for areas to be scaled in an underground sand mine was backed over by an articulated wheel loader that moved rearward into the alley she was in to turn around at the intersection of two tunnels.
Summary Case Report: A male roofer, age 42, went beyond the warning line rope system to get something and fell more than 20 ft (6.1 m) from the roof of a bottling company building to the concrete surface at ground level.
Summary Case Report: A male farmer, age 81, was operating a tractor with wide front axle and frontend loader with bucket, but had no rollover protective structure installed. A log chain ran from the loader bucket to the front of a rotary hoe in endwise transport mode. The loader bucket was raised 6 ft (1.8 m) above ground to lift the leading end of the rotary hoe as the tractor was driven in reverse along the gravel roadway until it left the road and overturned onto its top in the roadside ditch pinning its operator underneath.
Summary Case Report: A 27-year-old, male crane operator was moving a bridge beam at an interstate bridge construction site when the crane tipped over and fell through the bridge deck onto the railroad below crushing the crane's cab.
Summary Case Report: The unrestrained, male law enforcement officer, age 68, driving a sport utility vehicle (SUV) was ejected when a van in the adjacent lane of traffic going in the same direction struck a deer. The deer then struck the SUV causing it to swerve out of control. Then the van collided with the SUV and both vehicles overturned in the median.
Summary Case Report: A 41-year-old, black male was shot by a gun in a targeted shooting near the front door of a restaurant on his way into work.
Summary Case Report: A man, age 48, who had been riding on the railcar in the switchyard was struck and runover by the railcar when it moved backward unexpectedly during switching operations.
Summary Case Report: A male, volunteer mechanic, age 60, was struck by a wheel that broke free from a racecar on the track and bounded into the pit area.
Summary Case Report: A 50-year-old male was struck by an electric motor mount that broke as he worked near it to unclog the chute at the end of the belt conveyor it was powering.
Summary Case Report: A farmer and his son, age 20, were moving wooden planks in the rain when the son fell backward after a notable roll of thunder but no observed lightning.
Summary Case Report: A 21-year-old male fell 35 ft (10.7 m) while setting a truss that was lifted and guided into position by an extendable-reach rough-terrain forklift in a wooden pole building under construction on a farm.
Summary Case Report: A male, 46-year old unrestrained driver of an empty, single-axle flatbed straight truck with duals towing an empty 6750 gal (25.6 cu m) tandem-axle, manure slurry wagon was crushed inside the truck's cab. The wagon wagged out of control traveling downhill on the highway, went up onto the opposite side guardrail of a bridge, and pulled the truck off the bridge with it as it plunged to the riverbank and water below.
Summary Case Report: A truck driver, 61, was crushed in the cab of his westbound semi-truck with loaded trailer after it went off the interstate into the median, struck the barrier guardrail at the bridges over a railroad, vaulted over the railroad, and nose-dived head-on into the embankment at the west side of the tracks.
Summary Case Report: A restrained, 76-year-old, female entrepreneur who performed as a clown at gatherings in the community drove her car east from a stop sign into the path of a southbound semi-truck, which broadsided her car on the driver's side.
Summary Case Report: The male, 46-year-old operator on an early 1970's tractor without rollover protective structure towing a hay forage chopper along the edge of a field, was crushed under the right wheel of the tractor when the tractor and chopper overturned to the left almost 270-degrees down a roadside embankment.
Summary Case Report: A 77-year-old farm employee was run over while working on a self-propelled windrower that moved forward with its platform raised, after he had been advised to wait a couple minutes to see if the windrower would start.
Summary Case Report: A summer research assistant who had been off work a few days after injuring her ankle in a utility work vehicle overturn returned to work and was posting signs in a field when she collapsed.
Summary Case Report: A 52-year-old circus employee was stabbed repeatedly by his estranged wife near the entrance to the shopping mall moments after the circus had arrived there to set up.
Summary Case Report: A male farmer, age 61, was pinned changing blades under a rotary cutter, which was attached to the 3-point hitch of the tractor and held raised at its rear by the forks of a forklift, when the cutter shifted and fell.
Summary Case Report: A car driven by an unrestrained, male, rural postal carrier, age 58, was broadsided on the driver's side door by a tire delivery truck at an uncontrolled rural intersection of two gravel roads.
Summary Case Report: A 20-year-old, male laborer for a waste contractor at a soybean processing plant, while shoveling beans and residue to a conveyor to clear the inside a tall concrete silo was engulfed in beans that suddenly flowed into the silo when a failure occurred in a nearby silo.
Summary Case Report: A farmer, age 72, was crushed under a dead tree he was felling on his wooded acreage when it glanced off another standing tree and pinned him face down in the vine and brush undergrowth.
Summary Case Report: A black, female convenience store employee, age 27, was shot with a gun at work by her estranged companion.
Summary Case Report: A male farmer, 72, was the operator of a late 1960's narrow-front-axle tractor without rollover protection that overturned onto its top when he made a sharp right turn in a grassy waterway during a fast trip from the hayfield on his son's farm to avoid the approaching rains.
Summary Case Report: A 50-year-old, male Hispanic was the operator of an asphalt shaver / soil stabilizer without rollover protection being driven downhill in transit on a roadway when it crossed the centerline and swerved out of control flipping end-over-end then rolling sideways pinning its operator underneath in the roadside ditch.
Summary Case Report: A 35-year-old male excavating contractor was probing for a residential sewer line connection at the bottom end of an unshored, 40 ft (12 m) long , narrow, 14 ft (4.25 m) deep trench when its dirt and rock sides caved in on him before he could run to the opposite end and climb the ladder.
Summary Case Report: A 25-year-old, male Hispanic construction laborer guiding/spotting for a crane in operation, was crushed between the interlocking pilings shoring the excavated pool and the crane's counterweight as it swung nearly 180-degrees to deposit its load.
Summary Case Report: A 7-year-old boy was crushed between the front of an empty, flatbed hayrack and the back of the cargo box of a 4-wheeled compact utility hauler as it was backed rearward by his sister in the process of hooking up to the hayrack for it to be shuttled to baling operations elsewhere in the hayfield.
Summary Case Report: A male, apprentice electrician, age 41, working 15 ft (4.5 m) up on the metal framing to restore service inside an electrical distribution system substation was electrocuted when he contacted another element of the structure overhead.
Summary Case Report: A restrained, 52-year-old, male, project engineer drove his car into the path of a cement truck and was broadsided by it on the driver's side door.
Summary Case Report: A 58-year-old man was a restrained, front-seat passenger in a car that pulled into the path of a cement truck and was broadsided by it on the driver's side door.
Summary Case Report: The 64-year-old, male driver of a semi-truck tractor backed it into position to connect to its trailer and was subsequently run over as the tractor-trailer combination moved rearward in gear.
Summary Case Report: A maintenance foreman, age 53, was welding in the chute of a metal scrapyard guillotine shear as co-workers replaced the shear blades. While using an excavator boom with a chain attached to a wrench to torque the bolts that secured the blade, a bolt failed and its shank was ejected from its hole in the blade striking the foreman.
Summary Case Report: A 46-year-old farmer was found adjacent to portions of a shotgun among the ashes of an unused, smoldering building on his farm.
Summary Case Report: A male contractor, age 56, was removing floor tile in the basement of an unoccupied house being renovated using gasoline as a solvent when a water heater pilot light ignited fumes, causing an explosion.
Summary Case Report: A 66-year-old male operator was pinned underneath a mid-1960's wide-front-axle rowcrop tractor without a rollover protective structure pulling a rotary cutter when the combination overturned onto its top while mowing a roadside ditch.
Summary Case Report: A man, age 57, was the restrained driver in minivan heading east taking a local newspaper to the printer for reproduction when an oncoming pickup truck crossed the centerline and they collided head-on.
Summary Case Report: A 70-year-old man was the operator of a mid-1960's wide-front-axle rowcrop tractor without rollover protection carrying a large round bale on its rear 3-point hitch coming down a dirt road along a cut in the hillside with the uphill bank to his right. His son, who tried to maneuver his oncoming 4-wheeler into the tractor's path to slow the tractor, jumped clear and the tractor operator steering right. Its wheels went up the bank and the tractor overturned to the left onto its top.
Summary Case Report: A farmer, age 85, working on his son's farm was struck by the tire and/or rim he had removed from a forage wagon when the tire exploded as he was inflating it after repair work.
Summary Case Report: The unrestrained driver, age 43, of a walk-in delivery van, was ejected when it hydroplaned in heavy rains, went off the interstate roadway, and overturned several times before coming to rest in 3-ft (1 m) of rapidly flowing water.
Summary Case Report: A 29-year-old employee at a concentrated animal facility was found with a nylon rope hanging from the doorway knotted around his neck.
Summary Case Report: The unrestrained operator, age 47, of a semi-tractor with loaded trailer reached for something on the floor of his tractor. He was ejected through the windshield when his semi-truck went off the interstate roadway striking trees in the median.
Summary Case Report: A male, untethered repairman, age 61, working on a grain delivery tube above a grain bin fell from the personnel bucket lift of a crane onto the top of the bin then 25 ft (7.6 m) to the ground.
Summary Case Report: The 57-year-old, male driver of a garbage truck was struck while standing outside the driver's door by a dumpster that swung as the dumpster's mounting/saddle was being moved by a co-worker at the controls.
Summary Case Report: A male, concrete laborer, age 24, was moonlighting as a carpenter assisting with renovation of a building when the wood frame wall with large doorway header he was nailing in place slipped from the forklift operated by the building's owner.
Summary Case Report: The 64-year-old owner of a commercial building and lot was clearing it for sale when a hydraulic hose failed on his skid-steer with fork attachment. While facing into the operator station from the front with the lift arms raised and forks angled downward during repairs, the lift arms lowered or came down as the skid-steer moved rearward and the cross member between the lift arms pinned the operator to the skid steer's frame.
Summary Case Report: A 48-year-old male was the driver of the middle pick-up truck between a signal/crash straight truck behind and another pick-up truck with flatbed trailer ahead. All were stopped in the right lane of the interstate during a pause in applying sealant to the right shoulder. The crew member setting cones along the left edge of the right shoulder and all the vehicle operators were standing on the trailer when a semi-tractor with trailer rear-ended the signal/crash truck at highway speed causing a chain reaction.
Summary Case Report: A 19-year-old male was the driver of the straight signal / crash truck behind a pick-up truck which was behind another pick-up truck towing a flatbed trailer. All three vehicles were stopped in the right lane of the interstate during a pause in operations applying sealant to the right shoulder. The crewman setting cones on the left edge of the right shoulder and the drivers of the aforementioned vehicles were standing on the trailer when a semi-tractor with trailer rear-ended the crash truck at highway speed causing a chain reaction.
Summary Case Report: A male farmer, age 81, was entangled in the horizontal distribution beaters at the rear of the manure spreader, removing twine wrapped in them while the tractor's power-takeoff drive to the speader was operating.
Summary Case Report: A 62-year-old male golf club board member fell 20 ft (6.1 m) from the bucket of a rental bucket lift truck while working to remove a flagpool on the course.
Summary Case Report: A crane operator, age 46, at a wind-powered generator erection site, exited his crane and spoke with the extendable reach forklift operator who was placing cribbing as a support pad for the crane. The forklift operator backed up then moved forward running over the crane operator with the left front wheel of the forklift.
Summary Case Report: A retired 80-year-old male was driving a lawn tractor on a farm operated by his son when the mower deck snagged one of the temporary rubber hoses running from the LP tank to a portable grain dryer and bins causing the line to rupture. The escaping LP gas caught fire, scorching the area and the tractor, and the tractor's fuel tank exploded.
Summary Case Report: A municipal liquid waste tanker driven by a 55-year-old, unrestrained, male along a gravel roadway atop a dike overturned after going off the roadway. The driver steered the articulated 4-wheel tanker back toward the traveled portion of the road, but the rear applicator tines caught in the ground before the entire unit overturned.
Summary Case Report: A male, age 54, was the restrained front seat passenger in a westbound county pickup truck that was broadsided by a southbound van that ran a stop sign at a controlled, rural intersection.
Summary Case Report: A farmer, age 80, was using the bucket of a front-end loader raised to about tractor hood height to craddle the front-end of a moldboard plow. He was backing his late 1950's or early 1960's 50 PTO Hp tractor with narrow front axle and no rollover protection across and up a slight slope in an alfalfa field dragging the 4-bottom plow to the farmstead for repairs. The tractor's left rear wheel rim separated from its hub and the tractor overturned onto its top to the downhill side over the separated tire and rim.
Summary Case Report: A male, Hispanic, volunteer worker, age 34, was helping a friend at work. Operation of the pressure washer previously caused the hog confinement facility's lights to dim. The electrical panel was sprayed with water. He stepped on and leaned over a metal gate with the pressure washer wand in his hand to adjust the electrical service supply and was electrocuted.
Summary Case Report: A male, Hispanic, age 38, was sitting on the straight truck's frame leaning to cut a brace which supported the raised lift frame for the roll-off dumpster. When the brace was cut, the frame dropped.
Summary Case Report: A 42-year-old male was the unrestrained driver of a cargo/work van that collided head-on with an oncoming, northbound pickup truck which was attempting to pass a slow moving semi-truck on a two-lane roadway.
Summary Case Report: A 21-year-old Hispanic male was struck by a steel I-beam while erecting and securing the steel framework to a concrete slab on a farm with a co-worker who was using an extendable reach forklift to lift, position, and hold the steel.
Summary Case Report: A 66-year-old male was found at his law office desk with gun in hand and a gunshot wound to his head.
Summary Case Report: A male, maintenance foreman, age 67, was repairing a post along the shoulder of the above ground haul road to the underground limestone mine entrance when he was struck by a wheel loader that went out of control on the haul road.
Summary Case Report: A male, tractor operator 55-years-old was crushed under a grain wagon when it overturned. The tractor was towing two grain wagons full of corn down an icy, snow-covered roadway. The rear wagon went out of control and dragged the southbound combination in a U-turn on the roadway. The operator jumped and the front wagon tipped left pinning him to the road after its axle broke.
Summary Case Report: A male farm worker, 33-years-old was crushed under the raised cornhead of a combine in the field. He entered under the middle of the header from the front to free the header from its mounting on the feederhouse. Striking the latch or elsewhere with a hammer caused the header to fall free from its mountings.
Summary Case Report: A 30-year-old male was the restrained driver of an eastbound cargo van that collided with the midsection of a westbound semi-truck trailer which had crossed the median and come to rest across the eastbound lanes of the snow- and ice-covered interstate.
Summary Case Report: A 50-year-old man was operating his wide front axle utility tractor with front-end loader bale attachment but no cab or overturn protection. He was positioning a large square bale to the third tier of a trailer load when the bale tumbled from the loader attachment onto the operator's station of the tractor.
Summary Case Report: A 36-year-old male driving a company vehicle to work at high speed broadsided a moving railroad train locomotive. There was no evidence of pre-impact braking.
Summary Case Report: A male, property manager, age 49, was investigating a reported leak in the roof of a commercial office building during inclement weather with snow covering the rooftop. He lost his balance and fell over the low parapet 60-70 ft (18.3-21.3 m) onto vehicles parked along the street below.
Summary Case Report: A 46-year-old male from a neighboring farm was using his early 1950's narrow front axle tractor with front-end loader and no cab or overturn protection to remove snow from the neighbor's farm driveway. The tractor's left wheel went off the left side of the driveway and the tractor overturned onto the operator when another neighbor tried to pull it from the ditch using his pick-up truck and a tow strap connected to the raised loader bucket.
Summary Case Report: A semi-tractor with trailer moving slowly eastbound on the interstate roadway due to engine problems was rear-ended by a second semi-truck driven by a 38-year-old male.
Summary Case Report: A male, 62-year-old driver outside his semi-tractor was backed over in the parking lot of a dairy product distribution facility by another semi-truck and then runover again as that truck moved forward.
Summary Case Report: A 27-year-old semi-tractor operator parked to rest in the parking lot of a convenience store and was overcome by carbon monoxide. It was cold and windy. The fuel-powered generator to power the heater for his sleeper cab was running underneath the sleeper section of the tractor.
Summary Case Report: A 53-year-old male traveling sales person was the restrained driver of an automobile that skidded out of control on a snow- and ice-covered portion of the interstate during light snow showers. His eastbound auto went through the median and was broadsided by a westbound semi-truck, which was then rear-ended by a second westbound semi-truck.
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