Western Packing, Inc.: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Jul 18, 2018: Employee fractures cheekbone when struck by broken piece of

At 4:45 a.m. on July 18, 2018, an employee was working for a farm labor contractor and crew leader. He was a supervisor of a harvesting crew. He was in an agricultural field in Lockwood, CA. At the time of the incident, members of the crew were removing a loaded pallet from the front of a truck trailer. To facilitate the job, the employee tied a rope from the pallet to the backrest of a forklift. This was an attempt to pull the pallet out of the trailer with the forklift. As a coworker drove the forklift to pull on the pallet, the employee stood on the forklift forks. The pallet broke, and the broken piece of pallet struck the employee in the face. He was hospitalized. The employee received a fractured cheek bone. At 11:25 a.m. that same day, the employer contacted the Division to report the incident. On July 19, 2018, the Division went to the business office (due to the remote location of the field) and opened an investigation with the employer.