Loader Slides Off Low-Boy

A worker drove a front-end loader up a dirt ramp onto a lowboy trailer in preparation for a move to another job site. As the loader reached the trailer, the tractor tread began to slide off the trailer deck. When the loader started to tip over, the operator jumped out of the cab. As he hit the ground, the loader fell on top of him. He was crushed to death. The front-end loader was not equipped with seatbelts. Ironically, the operator was crushed to death by the rollover protective structure that would have saved his life had he been belted into the cab.

Seatbelts and rollover protective structures work together to protect operators of heavy mobile equipment. Similar accidents have occurred with forklifts falling off loading docks and tractor-trailers. This fatality also illustrates the futility of trying to jump away from a rolling vehicle. Many have died when they were crushed under vehicles rolling off of service roads or rural highways.