Worker run over by front-end loader he was driving
May 10, 2010 by Fred HosierPosted in: Bizarre Accident of the Week, construction safety, Fatality, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
PDF Michigan-OSHA is investigating a fatality involving a front-end loader at a road construction site.
Witnesses say 39-year-old Kenneth Ray Rockwell of Grand Rapids, MI, was thrown from a front-end loader when he lost control of the vehicle. The loader ran over him after he was thrown. He was pronounced dead at the scene in Garfield Township, MI.
Rockwell had been removing trees with the loader when it tipped over on a steep hill.
Rockwell worked for Anderson Tree Service, which is owned by his father.
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Tags: construction site, front-end loader, lost control of vehicle, worker run over
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May 11th, 2010 at 8:16 am
This man was a very close family friend. My heart goes out to family and friends. The funeral is today.
May 11th, 2010 at 9:17 am
My condolences on the loss of your friend. I hope everyone who reads this story learns the value of wearing seat belts all the time to prevent tragedies like this.
May 11th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
A tragic accident to be sure but if I was the family I would tell OSHA to get lost! I can’t imagine going through that kind of anguish and then being approached by a government agency that couldn’t care less about the individual!! As a father that also employs his children I feel for this man’s father and what he must be going through. ABOLISH OSHA.
May 13th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Michael, GET A GRIP!!
OSHA is a necessary “evil”. Lives have been saved because people have had to adhere to some common sense rules. (see Jen’s comment for example). It would have saved this guy’s life.
May 13th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Common sense should rule but if you are relying on a government agency to legislate it you will never get it! People should be responsible for their OWN actions and unless the owner has a gun to their head they will decide how much risk they are willing to take for the job. For example I don’t wear a seatbelt and I’m not going to. I pay for the vehicle, the taxes on the vehicle, the gas in the vehicle, the taxes on the gas, the taxes on the road, etc. etc. The government is not going to tell me how to wear my vehicle. I realize there are risks with that stance but I am willing to take them, my choice. I strive to create the safest work environment I can for our employees but they live in a free country (barely) and they are not robots. Accidents happen and it is nobody’s fault but a sorry agency such as OSHA or PI Lawyers will try to punish somebody. ABOLISH OSHA.
May 18th, 2010 at 8:20 am
Sure, people should re responsible for their own actions-but for everyemployer who provides safe working conditions, there are plenty more that place their employees in serious danger, and thus in the difficult position of risking their lives for a paycheck-or financial ruin. Personally, looking at the calaliere attitudes I’ve seen as common practice in many industries, there aren’t very many employers that I’d trust for my personal safety. STRENGTHEN OSHA’S AUTHORITY!
May 18th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Wow! I empathize with anyone’s right to be “free”. Yet to wear a seat belt or not that decision often doesn’t just effect that person. If someone chooses not to wear a safety device and then God forbid they should suffer a serious accident, their friends and family also suffer. They suffer emotionally and purhaps financially. Seat belts save lives.
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud…
There is a way that seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death.
- Proverbs 16: 18-19; 25
May 18th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
I agree with Terri. Also, if a company is doing it’s job and training their employees as to safety in the workplace, employees will want to do the right thing because it affects their own safety and is the smart thing to do. Finacially the company will do much better because their insurance rates, health care costs, Workmans Comp costs go down significantly. If one employee desides he doesn’t need to follow the safety rules and he gets injured or hurt, the whole company suffers (finacially and productivity wise).
PS PTL Terri
May 18th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
My heart goes out to the family as well. However as far as OSHA goes this was a work place fatality.
They are required to investigate it is thier job. The need for OSHA comes from a disregaurd for safety in the work place. I agree that at times they get heavy handed. Yet in the construction industry you will always find an employee or employer crossing that line because safety takes to long,cost to much,inconvenant,the list of excueses go on. We in the industry have created the need for this police dept. (OSHA) sad but true.
May 19th, 2010 at 7:12 am
Terri, nicely put!
May 20th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Terri, even though your “scripture” quotes were not the correct scriptures (AV 1611 King James) I would surmise from your post that you must understand “inalienable rights”. As one of the other posters stated a company does do better financially when their employees feel safer and more of a family than just a number. That is what the free market is all about and that is why we strive to accomplish that. We are not afraid of Big Brother and all we want them to do for us is get out of the way. I just read an article titled “Government, more incompetent than ever” which sums it all up just in the title. In my experience I have observed a Government (Local, State, and Federal) that can’t do anything right other than indoctrinate its subjects. That fact is further qualified by someone that would say “Strengthen OSHA’s Authority”. The free market, unfettered by an obtrusive and abusive Government will always weed out the “fly by night” companies and provide the best products/services to its customers and the best pay/benefits to its employees.
One other quick comment, I don’t trust many people with my safety either ie: Pilots, Other drivers, Police, etc. but I do what I have to do. Since I became an adult I don’t expect anyone to keep me safe anymore per se that is primarily my responsiblity and I can walk away from any potential employer, airport, bus terminal, etc. if I so choose. The one entity I most certainly do not trust with my, or my families, safety is the United States Government (OSHA, FBI, ATF, etc.)
May 21st, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Michael, Maybe you should look at what caused this fatality to take place and not blame the regulatory agencies, except for their total lack of of enforcement. There is a direct relationship between seatbelt use and ones intellect, or does your commons sense allow you to defy the laws of physics? You should educate yourself before you, one of your employees or one of your family members ends up like Mr. Rockwell.
May 24th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Education has nothing to do with it but Indoctrination does! Anyone that would support the “punishment” of a distraut family member that owns a business in which his son was killed while performing his job has been completely indoctinated! Unless this poor man committed suicide or was murdered then the cause of the fatality was an ACCIDENT!!! A choice to wear a seatbelt may or may not have saved his life. A giant air bubble inclosure around him probably would have….or maybe a cab made of foam. Ridiculous!! A wise man once told me “you can’t get this stupid on your own, you have to be taught to be this stupid through years of secular education”. My prayer is that God would help this family get through this terrible tragedy that has now been compounded by an out-of-control government agency and it’s “intelligent” minions.