Safety:
Safety
bulletin warns of hazards of falling dump truck
beds
OSHA has issued a Safety and Health Information
Bulletin (SHIB) to alert employers and employees
who service or maintain dump trucks or haulage trucks
about the hazard of falling dump truck beds. In
the SHIB, OSHA reminds employers that in construction
settings, 29 CFR 1926.600(a)(3)(i) requires that
dump bodies must be fully lowered or blocked when
being repaired or when not in use.
OSHA also requires, in 29 CFR 1926.601(b)(10), that
in construction settings, trucks with dump bodies
must be equipped with positive means of support,
permanently attached, and capable of being locked
in position to prevent accidental lowering of the
body while maintenance or inspection work is being
done.
The SHIB details actions to prevent unintended
falling of the dump truck bed, which include implementing
components of a lockout/tagout program.
OSHA reviewed its Integrated Management Information
System accident data, and identified 31 accidents
during the past 10 years that involved the unanticipated
release or movement of an elevated truck bed. Nearly
all of the accidents resulted in fatalities. OSHA
urges employers whose employees service or maintain
dump trucks to implement an effective Lockout/Tagout
Program in general industry settings or to implement
the above referenced construction standards in construction
settings to prevent unintended releases or movement
of the truck beds which can result in an employee’s
death or serious injuries.
Typically, employee exposures occurred during routine
maintenance or during troubleshooting activities.
Work performed under the raised beds involved repairs
to air or hydraulic lines, framework welding, electrical
wires and release cables, power take-off shafts,
hydraulic pumps, fuel pumps, and routine greasing.
Body props were not used, or were used improperly,
in a majority of the accidents. In a few cases,
the props were used but they failed.
Causes for the sudden movement of the dump bodies
included:
* inadvertent control operation, * inadvertently
pulling a release cable, * hydraulic failure, and
* premature reconnecting of an air line.
The following three sample OSHA cases illustrate
some of the problems faced when using non-engineered
dump body props.
Example 1: An employee was replacing the rear stabilizer
bar on a tandem dump truck. The dump bed was raised
and the safety support was in place. At some point,
the lift hydraulics for the dump bed failed, allowing
the weight of the bed to rest on the safety support
bracket which also failed, causing the bed to come
down and crush the employee.
Example 2: Two employees were installing a dump
bed onto a dump truck. The dump bed was being raised
up and down by slings attached to a bridge crane.
The dump bed had been raised and lowered several
times to make sure that the bed was aligned on the
truck chassis correctly. The back of the dump bed
was bolted in place. The dump bed was then raised
one more time so that a tubular rod could be placed
under the bed to hold it in the upright position
while one employee worked under the raised bed.
While placing the tubular rod under the dump bed,
the safety latch on the crane hook failed. This
allowed the slings to come off the hook. The dump
bed pinned both of the employee’s arms under
the bed between the chassis and the dump bed.
Example 3: An employee was greasing the U-joints
on a 1970 Mack dump truck. He had raised the dump
bed and had propped it up with a 4’’
x 6’’ x 8’ piece of wood. The
wood dislodged and the bed came down onto his back,
pinning and seriously injuring him. The employee
later died.
