The first part of the pour of the second floor deck of the parking structure did not go smoothly for the young pump operator.  His employer had assigned him to a 52-meter concrete pump truck because the regular operator was off on his summer vacation.  While the young operator had spent over a year operating smaller rigs pumping cement for slab on grade projects, this was only the second day that he had been running the largest pumper in the yard.  He was not enjoying the experience.

The weather was hot, not a typical summer day in the East Bay.  The pour was complicated with a 10 man concrete placement crew scurrying around the hose of the pumper as it discharge load after load  on the second deck of a massive parking structure going up next to the 25 story condominium project.  Delays in the delivery of the concrete had really got in the general contractor's superintendent on edge.  Now the young operator had to shut down the pump, secure the boom, raise the outriggers and move the rig over to the other side of the structure in order to complete the pour.

Just before the operator got into the cab, the superintendent came over to complain to the operator that the transfer was proceeding too slowly.  The superintendent made it very clear that the young operator didn't know what he was doing, which was delaying the pour.  The superintendent reminded the young operator that if he did not move quickly and cold joints formed then back charges would be levied against the pumping company.

The operator moved quickly to set up the pumper on the other side of the structure to avoid the wrath of his boss that would follow any back charges for a delay.  He extended the pump's outriggers, placing three of them on dirt and the other on a piece of plywood next to the foundation, because he didn't have time to place the proper dunnage beneath the outriggers.  The concrete drivers loaded up the hopper and the operator extended the boom towards the second deck.  He was pleased with himself for completing the move in less than 25 minutes.

Up on the deck a member of the placement crew was standing to the right of the boom, watching the boom and hose move towards him.  As the boom was nearly over his head, the pumper's right outrigger broke through the plywood and buckled causing the tip of the boom drop on the unlucky crew member, fracturing his skull in three places and breaking every significant bone on the right side of his body.  His coworkers ran over quickly to pull him out of the wet concrete and administered first aid.

Below, the young operator panicked.  He called his dispatcher at the yard, who told him to get the pumper out of the jobsite and back to the yard so they could figure out what happened.  The superintendent was on the deck attending to the injured worker when he heard the pumper start up.  He turned to watch it drive off the site before anyone had the opportunity to examine or photograph the outrigger and the plywood.

The lawsuit was filed a few months later.  The workers' compensation lien was nearly a million dollars.  Days before trial, the case settled for multiple millions of dollars with significant contributions by the carriers for the underground contractor who had left the plywood, the pumping company, the concrete replacement company, and the general contractor.  Everyone contributed to the settlement because no real investigation had been performed prior to the pumper being transported off the site.  Without the photographs, the parties' experts could only speculate as to what actually happened in the incident.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

Every good contractor pays attention to safety these days.  This magazine has provided a number of articles through the years detailing the costs and liability exposures arising from such incidents.  The sad fact is there will always be jobsite accidents. 

While you cannot guarantee that accidents will never occur, you can protect yourself from paying more than what you are obligated to pay by conducting a proper investigation after an incident.  In this case, the pumper was moved before anybody could inspect it or photograph the scene for use by the experts and defense counsel at trial. 

The young operator saved his company a significant sum of money because lack of visual evidence allowed his employer to argue that the young man had put down sufficient dunnage below the outrigger.  No one on the pour had bothered to look at the pumper setup prior to second half of the pour because everyone was worried about what was going on up on  the deck.  However, it was very clear that the young operator did not test the stability of the outriggers prior to commencing the pour. 

The underground contractor was dragged into this case because it did not properly backfill the trench for the water line that ran underneath the foundation.  Its crew left a piece of plywood over the a 12- to 14-inch deep hole.  The crew probably assumed that since the trench was in a planter box, the soil would have been reworked by the landscape contractor.  This oversight by the foreman cost his employer all of its primary policy limits.  The employer had been in serious financial difficulties prior to the suit and was forced to close up its operations after the case settled. 

There is a two-part moral to this story.  First, make sure your crews perform their work in accordance with the contract documents.  Second, never let any equipment be moved or the scene of an accident altered before a thorough investigation can be conducted.

So what IS the lesson to be learned?

Haul-ass-fast?

Slow down and do it right?

Don't let the sup't get you upset?

OK i like the third paragraft best where the customer levies the threat of perfomance, that was the moment the pump should have washed and drove away. this is always the prelude to an accident, accomidating stupid. when would insurance companies like to address this issue. its called unprofessional conduct and the customer thinks my job my rules and you owe them a profit. 

This is an incident that we are seeing quite alot of in England keep getting all this bull about method statements and health and safety. When it comes to near the end of the day and most of the site are going home and there are still 100 cubic metres to poor health and safety seem to go out of the window but nothing ever gets said about that. All the foremen want to do is rush to get you off site. Never ever feel pressured by site foremen it is our job to make sure the pump is secure. The lad in the incident probably won't ever want to drive a big pump again.

I know of this particular event,and all of the ass covering that ensued!And you know what,NO ONE asked how the operator was!Just how would it affect you? I can tell you this kid will never be the same!As a PUMP OPERATOR we have more responsibility than any single person on the job during a pour,yet we are bullied by most everyone.Superintendents,ready-mix companys,hosemen,placement crew foremen,dispatchers,and so on.Some are willing to threaten us with call-in's if we dont hurry up!Others with back-charges,and concrete costs!Then we have the machine,which most think should never break down,yet the finishers will hit with the bull-float pole repeatedly. Then they get mad if you spend an extra 10 minutes to protect your truck then show up at the clean-out in the middle of your wash,to get you to make out the ticket! This site is the ONLY place where the operator really counts!

People try to rush me and say things to me. i just take off my remote box and try to hand it to them and say "if you can do a better job then i would love to see it" usually they walk away  and leave me alone.

Aha I thought we were the only ones. Everyone is looking for freebies it seems.Or dung slinging. It may never change, but the odd good contractor makes up for the ten bad ones.