Traffic trouble at Five Corners - Truck's tail gate accident on Beach Road

A work crew cleans up debris strewn along Beach Road and State Road when a dump truck's tailgate opened unexpectedly. The incident was one of three mishaps that delayed traffic at Five Corners in Vineyard Haven Friday, March 7th 2008

Traffic trouble at Five Corners

Traffic delays worthy of an August afternoon tied up the Five Corners intersection in Vineyard Haven Friday, March 7, when three separate incidents in about 15 minutes delayed motorists.

About 9:15 am, police responded to a minor accident on Beach Road, just outside the intersection. After a record check, police determined the license of one of the drivers, Denamos Moore, was revoked because of an insurance cancellation. Mr. Moore was arrested and transported to the Dukes County Jail for booking. The other driver, Lawrence Yorke, was not cited.

While the first fender-bender was being cleared, a truck owned by Clermont Construction, and driven by George Hearn, began strewing excavation debris along the roadway. The truck's tailgate opened on Beach Road near the Ralph Packer oil tank farm, and dropped gravel and large rocks from there, through Five Corners, and up Beach Street, before stopping in a parking lot at the corner of Main Street. Mr. Hearn was cited for transporting an unsecured load, and could be fined up to $200.

A front-end loader was called in to help clear the debris from the road, but before that was cleaned up, another minor accident on the opposite side of the Five Corners intersection required a police response.

Michael Sedlier of Oak Bluffs, who was driving a tractor and semi-trailer, was involved in a collision with a pick-up truck driven by Gregory Whitmore of West Tisbury.

There was minor damage to the pick-up. Neither driver was cited. Police say the gravel in the roadway did not contribute to third incident.

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Mark Deverson

President

Precision Endgate Safety Inc.

Phone: 1-877-942-4225

Fax: 1-866-278-8735

Email: mark@precisionendgate.com

http://www.precisionendgate.com/

Company Owner Dies In Construction Truck Accident

In doing some research for Precision Endgate I came across this interesting article.

People just do not seem to realize how dangerous an endgate problems can be.

Mark


By Nick Miroff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 31, 2006;
Page B05

An Alexandria man working on the Springfield interchange project was killed yesterday after being hit in the chest by a board that he had wedged between two dump trucks, police and construction officials said.

Julio Alvarez Rodriguez, 43, owner of Julio's Trucking in Alexandria, was trying to haul debris away from the construction site, said Larry Cloyed, manager of the interchange project for the Virginia Department of Transportation. The tailgate on Rodriguez's truck would not shut properly, so he tried to close it by placing a three-foot-long piece of thick wood against the gate while another truck backed up against it.

"The lumber either snapped or flung out loose," Cloyed said. "With all that pressure, it came out like a missile and killed him."
The accident occurred at 7:20 a.m. in the construction area between Interstate 395 and the carpool lanes at the Mixing Bowl, Virginia State Police said. Rodriguez was pronounced dead at the scene.

"The force of the [board] caused major injuries in his chest area," Sgt. Thomas Ingham said. Police ruled out criminal negligence or wrongdoing in Rodriguez's death, and an autopsy will be conducted, Ingham said.

Rodriguez was a native of Honduras, Ingham said. Efforts to contact his family and his company were unsuccessful.

Rodriguez was the fifth worker to be killed at the Springfield site since construction began in 1999. The $676 million project, designed to ease congestion at one of the region's most troubled traffic spots, is expected to be completed late next summer. Ninety to 120 people work at the site on any given day.

The most recent fatal accident at the site occurred in April 2005, when Darren Havermale, 35, of Berkeley Springs, W.Va., was caught between a steel beam and a lift basket, or cherry picker, and suffered a broken neck.

In 2002, the Virginia Department of Labor shut down construction on the project for four days to conduct a safety review after the deaths of three workers in nine months.
Safety has improved, Cloyed said, but five deaths in seven years is "not a good record, in my eyes."

Investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were on the scene yesterday, as were safety inspectors from VDOT and the interchange project. Cloyed said yesterday's incident was a clear departure from approved construction practices.
"It's frustrating when you have a tragedy of this nature that could have been so easily prevented," he said.

"The best lesson learned from this is that the word needs to get out to the trucking community," Cloyed said. "If you have a loose tailgate, this is not the way to fix the problem."

VDOT spokeswoman Joan Morris said the accident muted the excitement generated by last week's opening of a ramp linking I-395 to the inner loop of the Capital Beltway.
"We made a major improvement last week when we opened a new bridge," she said, "and now, the next week, we're dealing with a tragic fatality."

Mark Deverson
President
Precision Endgate Safety Inc.
Phone: 1-877-942-4225
Fax: 1-866-278-8735
Email: mark@precisionendgate.com
http://www.precisionendgate.com/

What Is a Box Truck?

There are many manufacturers of box trucks for the US market. While there are differences in each model, box trucks do have many similarities:

• Box trucks have separate, box-like cargo areas that sit on the frame.
  The box on some trucks is completely separate from the cab. The cargo area of those trucks cannot be accessed from the cab.
• Some box trucks have a cargo area that is grafted to the cab. In such cases, the cargo area may be accessed from the cab.
• Most box trucks have a roll-up rear door that is similar to a garage door.
• Box trucks are generally used by companies that need to haul large items such as furniture, appliances, and large boxes.
• Box trucks are very common. You probably see them every day. They are frequently used as rental moving vans by companies like U-Haul and Ryder.
• Box trucks are not all large. They come in all sizes.

Given the size and nature of box trucks, there may be a number of ways in which a serious injury can result due to negligent actions on the part of the operator.