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Description of Driving Event:

One of two truck driver employees of Contractor's Cargo Company, was lifted or hurled, from the top of a flatbed trailer parked on the NASA-Ames Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) Test Pad. This mishap occurred while the employee was positioning a load suspended in slings on the flatbed. The towbar of the load, which was the flatbed front wheel assembly, rotated from a vertical to horizontal position upon being touched or moved by the employee. In the course of being lifted or hurled from the truck by the towbar, the employee sustained serious head injuries and was transported, unconscious, to a hospital. He remained at the hospital for about a month, then was transferred to Southern California. He was still in a coma when he was transferred.