Farmwife Pinned Against Wall
With Front-End Loader

In the fall of 1996, an Iowa farmwife was killed while helping her husband and son build a new home. The woman and her 21-year-old son were standing next to a new concrete foundation of the home, holding down drainage tile with their feet while the son shoveled gravel out of a front-end loader bucket attached to a tractor his father was driving. The edge of the bucket was approximately three feet from the foundation wall when this work began. The tractor was in forward gear with the clutch pushed in, and brakes applied, sitting on an 18-degree downward slope towards the foundation. The tractor had four-wheel drive with spring-engaged hydraulic front brakes.

The farmer began to raise the bucket to dump the remainder of gravel and suddenly noticed that his son and wife were being pinned against the concrete foundation despite his pressure on the brakes. He immediately put the tractor in reverse, backed off, and rushed to their aid. His son received superficial injuries, however, his wife was killed instantly from internal vascular rupture.

1. Workers should not occupy the narrow space between a powered vehicle and stationary object.

— This narrow space is hazardous because machine malfunction or operator error may occur.

— The tractor as positioned on a downward slope further increased the risk in this case.

— Working adjacent to or under hydraulic machine parts is always very dangerous.

2. Tractor operators should be aware of necessary precautions related to front-end loader use.

— A loader bucket will move forward considerably while being raised, especially on an incline.

— In close quarters, raising the bucket for any reason, is potentially dangerous (see diagram).

— When a tractor is on an incline, it is better to have the transmission in park or in reverse gear.