Posted on 08/08/2005 11:11:17 AM PDT by Millee
Government safety investigators were due in Durango, Colo., Monday to look into the circumstances the led to the death of construction worker.
The 24-year-old man, who has not been identified, was crushed under a five-ton road-maintenance vehicle that that flipped on top of him.
The man was driving the pneumatic roller in a subdivision when the machine's left wheels went off the edge of a dirt road, causing it to roll over. The man who died was driving the roller, according to the sheriff's office.
The man worked for Scott & Sons Excavation, which was performing road work in the Rafter J subdivision.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was called in to investigate the workplace-related death.
Of all types of equipment to run, the roller is the easiest. I suspect drugs/alcohol/stupidity, probably all 3.
"The man was driving the pneumatic roller in a subdivision when the machine's left wheels went off the edge of a dirt road, causing it to roll over."
The center of gravity must be pretty high on that thing for this to happen at any type of reasonable speed.
I used to drive one of those things back in the 1960's. Ours was modified to be pulled behind a tractor so I was never in the middle of it.
Has El Presiente Fox been notified?
(deep breath) OK.
Seriously, though, prayers up for this guy's family.
Yeah, it sucks when not everyone goes home alive at the end of the day.
experts from the woodwork alert. running a roller is an art, I would think.
furthermore, hit a little unstable earth, as one might on a construction site, an the machine cannot be controlled. especially if the center of gravity rolls.
many rollers don't have ROPS (roll-over protection systems), so he would have been better off without a seatbelt...in all my years with heavy junk engineers, I've never seen a roller (9 wheel, vib, etc...) turn over...it's ususally the most boring job on the site...even less fun than being pushcat...
I was a heavy equipment operator before I became a civil engineer for a heavy/highway construction company. Your point?
A bobcat is about the only piece of equipment I wear a seatbelt in.
You have to try very hard to flip a roller.
(I had a friend who took a D-9 backwards down a steep hillside end over end. The cage held, but he got seriously thrashed bouncing around inside.)
Shame on me for being sarcastic at what is a tragic time for his family.
When I was an LEO I was called to a freak accident scene where a guy was operating one of those machines that takes hot asphalt in the front and lays it down as it moves along and smashes it. He drove it under a low wire and it caught him and knocked him off to the front and he fell in the vat and basically asphalted him into the road. They did not have safety kill swutches at that time.
His coworkers said you could hear him screaming as it ran over him. He has 2nd/3rd degree burns an massive internal injuries and broken bones and died before the ambulance arrived while coworkers could only watch.
Jeez that gives me the chills. I bet his co-workers still have nightmares over it.
That's about as disturbing as it gets.
The hazards of asphalt.
made me think of Rachel Corrie
Backed it beneath the wire?
Prayers for the family.
Before jumping to conclusion, this is Durango, Colorado. Houses and subdivisions in Colorado have been built on the sides of mountains. Several years ago I took a trip on highway 160 into Durango. They were paving Wolf Creek pass. The guy on the roller was running right up to the edge with asphalt breaking off and falling down the mountain. Living in the mountains sometimes makes you too comfortable with the dangers of altitude and drop offs.
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