Quentin Boswell: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Aug 8, 2018: Employee crushed by falling granite slab sustains knee fract

At 4:36 p.m. on August 8, 2018, an employee was working for a firm that provided local, general freight trucking. He was working for an independent contractor truck driver. The driver was the sole proprietor of the firm. The employee and his coworkers were loading furniture and other possessions onto a tractor trailer. This cargo was stored at nationwide moving firm's warehouse in Livermore, CA. It had been transported to a flat parking and loading area by workers for that firm. Once the cargo had been taken out of the warehouse, it became the responsibility of the employee and the firm for which he worked to load the cargo onto the truck. At the time of the incident, workers for the employer were loading a final crate containing a granite slab into the truck. Initially the crate was brought out on a wheeled art cart. The workers rolled the cart up a ramp leading to the truck. Because the truck was nearly full, they were unable to unload the crate from the cart. They rolled the crate and cart back down to the pavement. They then attempted to lift the crate up and slide out the cart from underneath its load. The employee was lifting the crate with his employer, while another coworker pulled out the cart. The crate began to fall. The employee attempted to push it back upright, but his knee gave out. The slab then fell on top of him. He sustained a tibial plateau fracture on his left knee. He was not hospitalized. The Division was notified of the incident by the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department at 10:35 p.m. on that same day. It arrived at the site to perform an investigation on September 13, 2018. 13, 2018.