Grape Picker Run Over by Bin Trailer, Breaks Leg (Summary)

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SUMMARY : CASE 191-011-01

Grape pickers were riding from the vineyard to the road on bin trailers. These trailers are pulled by tractors and carry big bins of grapes. The riders stood on the three or four inches between the bins and the edge of the trailer, hanging onto the bins. The morning was foggy and the trailer surface was wet and slippery. One worker fell off and the trailer wheel rolled over and broke his left leg.

The foreman and crew picked the worker up, carried him to a truck and drove him eight miles to a hospital. Moving someone with a badly broken leg can be as dangerous and painful to the victim as the injury itself. The worker was in the hospital for many days, and had at least two operations on his leg.

How could this injury and what followed have been prevented?

  • Do not ride on equipment which is not designed to carry people.
  • Employers should explain and enforce field safety rules every day.
  • Every field work team should have a person certified in first aid.
  • Work crews should have a cellular phone or radio available to use for contacting emergency medical services.

Publication #: CDHS(COHP)-FI-92-005-05

This document was extracted from a series of the Nurses Using Rural Sentinal Events (NURSE) project, conducted by the California Occupational Health Program of the California Department of Health Services, in conjunction with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Publication date: May 1992.


The NURSE (Nurses Using Rural Sentinel Events) project is conducted by the California Occupational Health Program of the California Department of Health Services, in conjunction with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The program's goal is to prevent occupational injuries associated with agriculture. Injuries are reported by hospitals, emergency medical services, clinics, medical examiners, and coroners. Selected cases are followed up by conducting interviews of injured workers, co-workers, employers, and others involved in the incident. An on-site safety investigation is also conducted. These investigations provide detailed information on the worker, the work environment, and the potential risk factors resulting in the injury. Each investigation concludes with specific recommendations designed to prevent injuries, for the use of employers, workers, and others concerned about health and safety in agriculture.

Disclaimer and Reproduction Information: Information in NASD does not represent NIOSH policy. Information included in NASD appears by permission of the author and/or copyright holder. More

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