CA Transportation - Highways: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Mar 6, 2008: Employee is injured in fall from tree

On March 6, 2008, Employee #1, employed by the California Department of Transpor tation, was training in tree rescues. He was climbing up the tree to practice re scuing the rescue dummy. He was at the top branch and had secured the dummy. He was securing himself. He did not notice that his shirt got caught in the carabin eer while making the connection and it snapped closed and he assumed it was atta ched properly. He signaled everything was OK and started down but started to fal l. He tried to slow himself down by grabbing the ropes but he burned his hands. He slowed the fall but he still hit the ground hard. He sustained a serious frac ture to his left leg. Employee #1 was taken by ambulance to Fresno Community Hos pital, where he was hospitalized for treatment.

Incident on Nov 7, 2006: Employee is injured while crossing a fence

On November 7, 2006, Employee #1 was crossing a fence to remove graffiti from a bridge abutment. When the fence collapsed, he tumbled down an embankment. Employ ee #1 was hospitalized for a fracture and dislocation of his left knee. The fenc e had been cut by a graffiti artist.

Incident on Apr 4, 2006 (fatal): Employee is killed when crushed between trucks

At approximately 1:15 p.m. on April 4, 2006, Employee #1, an equipment operator, and two coworkers were filling pot holes with cold mix from the rear of an asph alt truck on a highway. They were being protected by a shadow (safety) vehicle, as they repaired the road. During their work, the shadow truck was struck from b ehind by a flatbed tow truck, causing the truck to plow into Employee #1 at the rear of the asphalt truck. He was pinned between the two trucks and sustained tr aumatic injuries that killed him.

Incident on Jan 22, 2006: Employee's eye struck by flying object

On January 22, 2006, Employee #1, a weekend work program participant, was using a manual weed whip cutting down weeds in a field off of a highway. While swingin g the whip with his right hand a weed came up and struck him in his eye under hi s prescription glasses. He was hospitalized.

Incident on Aug 30, 1994: Employee's arm injured between falling boom and truck bed

Employee #1 was using a mobile truck crane to pull bent fence posts from the gro und. A chain was wrapped around the posts and then attached to the crane. The ch ain had already broken twice and in the next attempt, the chain slipped off the post. This caused the crane boom to jerk and Employee #1 fell against the contro ls, triggering the boom to release. The boom came down and trapped Employee #1's arm between the crane and the truck bed.