scope:

Description of Driving Event:

An employee was loading a wheeled welding cart onto a truck equipped with a hydraulic lift gate when the welding unit fell from the lift gate.

The employee, working alone, pulled the welder onto the lift gate from the vehicle's right side. He then turned the front wheel 90 degrees to help stabilize the welder and chocked the rear wheels with the aluminum ramp. Using the lift gate control on the right side of the vehicle, he raised the gate to the truck bed level. After reaching the truck bed elevation, the welding cart began to shift or slip towards the right side of the vehicle. The high center of gravity of the welder, the inadequacy of the aluminum ramp as a wheel chock, and the adverse slope of the lift gate, all contributed to the instability of the welding cart that resulted in the welder falling from the gate.