Fatal Work Injury On California Highway Accident

msha.gov, May 01, 2006

Dwight J. Boris, heavy equipment operator, age 60, was fatally injured on January 27, 2006, when the dozer he was operating backed over the edge of a highwall and fell approximately 50 feet. The dozer landed in mud and water which had accumulated on the level below.

The accident occurred because the victim was operating the dozer in a work area without sufficient illumination to provide safe working conditions. He had maneuvered the dozer backwards onto the five-foot berm located near the edge of the highwall. The center weight of the dozer then shifted to the rear, causing it to slam down and travel backwards over the highwall. The operator was not wearing his seatbelt at the time of the accident which may have contributed to the victim losing control of the dozer.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCIDENT

On the day of the accident, Dwight J. Boris (victim) arrived at work about 6:00 a.m., his normal starting time. Boris, Jason Endicott, dozer operator, and John Fisher, operations manager, met and discussed the work assignments for the day. Endicott would operate a D8 dozer and Boris would operate a D6 dozer to push the overburden from the top of the highwall to prepare the area for drilling.

Boris drove his pick-up truck to the staging area at the top of the highwall where both dozers were parked. Boris did a walk around inspection of the D6 dozer. After starting the dozer, Boris and Endicott discussed the job and the procedures they were going to use to push the remaining overburden over the edge of the highwall.

They decided that Endicott would push material over the edge and Boris would push in the trench that had been established previously. Endicott said he was going to wait until daylight to push material over the edge of the highwall. Boris stated he was going to make a couple of passes in the trench. He made the first pass while Endicott watched from the D8 dozer parked on the side of the trench opposite the edge of the highwall. When Boris made the second pass, Endicott moved the D8 dozer down into the trench and traveled a short distance. Endicott then backed the dozer out of the trench and parked on a slight hill on the opposite side of the trench from where he was previously parked, about 20 feet from the edge of the highwall.

Boris waited at the dump point on the south end of the highwall while Endicott positioned his dozer. The victim then backed the D6 dozer approximately 30 feet away from the dump point, turned the dozer approximately 90 degrees to the right, and continued backing, traveling up the 5-foot berm. When the dozer crested the berm, it rocked backwards and slammed down. The dozer then increased speed and traveled approximately 15 feet before it went over the 50-foot highwall.

Endicott got out of his dozer and ran to where Boris' dozer had traveled over the edge to see if Boris was laying anywhere on top of the highwall. Before driving to the bottom of the highwall where the dozer had landed, Endicott called Ken Massingale, equipment operator, and told him that Boris had driven off the highwall in the D6 dozer. When Endicott reached the dozer, it was on its side with the cab partially visible above the water and mud. He could not locate Boris. Emergency rescue personnel arrived a short time later and initiated efforts to recover the victim. Boris was pronounced dead at the scene by the county coroner. Death was attributed to drowning.