Fatalities whilst using jacks

in Australia, 1989 to 1992

Information from
the second work-related fatalities study,
1989 to 1992
National Occupational Health and Safety Commission
August 1999
Further information and use of this publication
Further information from this study regarding fatalities whilst using jacks in Australia may be
available. Persons with a specific interest in this area and who would like more information
are encouraged to approach the authors of this report.
Wide dissemination and use of the information arising from the work-related fatalities studies
is encouraged. This publication is copyright. However, it may be reproduced with proper
acknowledgment. The suggested citation is: Work-related fatalities study team. Fatalities
whilst using jacks in Australia, 1989 to 1992. National Occupational Health and Safety
Commission, August 1999.
For further information regarding all work-related deaths see: Work-related traumatic
fatalities in Australia, 1989 to 1992 National Occupational Health and Safety Commission,
Sydney, 1998.
Fatalities whilst using jacks in Australia, 1989 to 1992
Information from the second work-related fatalities study, 1989 to 1992
Work-related fatalities study team
National Occupational Health and Safety Commission
Introduction
This information comes from the second of two studies of work-related fatalities that have
been conducted by the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission. The first of
these studies, conducted in the late 1980s, covered the period 1982-1984 inclusive. The
second study covered the period 1989-1992. The information was obtained primarily from
coronial files. Detailed information was collected about the work-related deaths. For most
other deaths, a short text description of the circumstances was made. A general overview of
the main results from the study is available elsewhere
1
. A summary of the study methods and
definitions used in the study is included at the end of this report.
Inclusion criteria
There were 27 incidents identified where a vehicle killed a person who was working under it.
Of these 27 persons killed, 20 were carrying out home duties (car repairs) and seven were
regarded as being at work.
Fourteen of the 27 fatalities resulted from a car falling off the jack that was supposed to be
supporting it. In most of the cases, the precise reason for the car falling off the jack was not
known but investigators speculated two main possible causes: firstly, the jack was being used
to perform a task for which it was not suited, and, secondly, the car, when jacked up was not
secured adequately, causing it to be vulnerable to movements, bumps and vibrations.
In six of the 27 fatalities, a car was put on ramps and subsequently rolled off onto the victim.
In five of these cases the car was not secured by chocks. In the other case, chocks were used
but the car slipped off anyway.
In four other cases, the car was elevated, perhaps by jack, but sat on various kinds of
structures such as coil springs, wooden blocks, car stands and bricks. The structure failed,
resulting in the car falling onto the worker.
Two other cases did not follow the usual pattern. One man was trapped when he was fixing
the blade of a slasher and a dog hit the controls in the tractor which was operating it, lowering
the assembly onto him. Another was using a pit under his car when the car rolled into it,
crushing him.
In the remaining case the only information in the file was that the worker was found with his
car collapsed on top of him.

1
Work-related traumatic fatalities in Australia, 1989 to 1992. National Occupational Health and
Safety Commission, 1998.
Brief summaries of the incidents are included below.
Fatalities whilst performing home duties.
A security officer died of crush asphyxia after his car fell on him whilst he was
undertaking repairs at his home. The security guard was working under his panel van and
was pulling on the differential when the vehicle rolled off the ramps it was on and fell
onto him. There appeared to have been no precautions taken to prevent the vehicle from
rolling backwards from the ramps.
A bus driver died when his car on which he was performing mechanical work, rolled on
top of him. The place was the carport of a rural property where he lived in a caravan. The
bus driver decided to do some maintenance on his car, which involved removing the gear
box. He borrowed some car ramps from the landlord of the property and drove the front
wheels onto the ramps, leaving the car in gear but with the hand brake off and without
wheel chocks. He lay on his back underneath the car and levered the tail shaft off the
differential. This caused the car to roll off the ramps and onto his chest. It is not clear
how experienced the bus driver was in performing mechanical work.
A station hand died of crush asphyxia when his car in which he was changing the engine,
fell onto his chest. The incident occurred in a hay shed on the property where the station
hand lived and worked. The station hand had the car parked in a hay shed and used a
small car jack under the middle of the front axle to lift the car and then took the front tyres
off. He proceeded to change the engine of the car because the chassis was broken. His
brother was present initially and warned him that just using a single jack was dangerous,
but the station hand told him not to worry and stated that he had been under the car all the
day before without problem. The brother then left. For some reason, the car then fell off
the jack and fell onto the station hands chest.
An electrician was working on his Range Rover at home when it collapsed onto him. He
was replacing the differential. It appears that after jacking the vehicle up with two small
hydraulic jacks, he then supported it on two coil springs (without the jacks). It is not
known why he did this. It appears that at some stage he probably pulled himself out from
under the rear of the vehicle and in so doing the tow-bar and bumper section collapsed
onto him. The floor of the garage was of dirt, uneven and sloping backwards, and though
not suggested, this may have played a part in the event.
A retired motor mechanic was working underneath a vehicle that had been jacked up with
the use of a hydraulic jack, but there were no chocks under the rear wheels. It appears the
jack failed and the vehicle descended onto the retired mechanic. The retired mechanic
was performing mechanical work on his vehicle in the rear yard of his home, alone. The
car was on a slight slope.
A security officer was undertaking car repairs at a friend's house when the jack he was
using to lift the car up gave way and the car fell onto him. The jack being used was in
good working order but inappropriate for its use in this incident. The area where the car
was placed was sloped and the surface uneven.
A taxi driver was attempting to repair the exhaust on his car at his home. Whilst he was
lying under the car it collapsed onto him. He had propped the car up with a bottle-type
trolley jack but had not used ramp stands available to him. Whilst under the car, it appears
the jack gave way for an unknown reason.
A pensioner was working on his car in the rear yard of his home. He was lying under the
car undertaking repairs/maintenance when the car slipped off ramps on which it was
supported and fell onto him. The handbrake of the car was applied and concrete blocks
were placed behind the rear wheels. It is not known how the car slipped off the ramps ie.
if the pensioner knocked it off, somebody else did or a physical factor contributed.
An elderly retiree was working on his car at his home. He had removed the two front
wheels of the car and placed a round block of wood under the front cross member. It then
appears that he placed a wind up jack on the passengers side back and removed the rear
wheel. He was attempting to replace the exhaust system on the car. It appears that either
the rear jack was knocked out or the front of the car slipped and the rear of the car came
down onto the retiree, who was then trapped under the vehicle.
A pensioner was in the backyard of his home working on a car. He was found trapped
under a Chrysler car shell, wedged between the rear right tyre and a makeshift jack
constructed from bricks and situated under the front and rear doors on the driver's side.
A pensioner was working underneath a motor vehicle that was on a jack. It appears that,
whilst he was beneath the vehicle, the vehicle fell off the jack onto the pensioner.
A pensioner was attempting to repair a vehicle in a caravan park in an urban area. The
pensioner and his wife had booked into the caravan park and the pensioner had gone
outside of the caravan to repair a power steering seal. The wife then heard a thump and
ran outside to see her husband trapped under the car.
A miner was repairing his car in the carport of his home when the car fell on him after a
jack had collapsed. The miner was repairing the fuel tank on his sedan and had jacked the
car quite high with a small pole and lever type car jack issued to this model of car by the
manufacturers. It appears that the jack gave way and the car has fell onto the miner.
A linesman was carrying out repairs to the under-carriage of his car in the driveway of his
home when the car fell on him. The linesman had used a lifting jack and timber to lift the
car, and this failed.
An apprentice motor mechanic stated it was his intention to remove the gearbox from his
sedan in the workshop at the rear of the yard of the premises. His mother returned home
and went to the workshop where the apprentice was laying under his car, with the cars
weight on his body. It is believed that because he was unable to start the car to drive it up
the ramps, the apprentice used only the steel stands that form the front part of the ramp
and jacked his car up with a hydraulic trolley jack, placing the sloping stands under each
of the front wheels. He then removed bolts from the tailshaft and, as the vehicle was in
'park' and the handbrake 'off,' as soon as the tailshaft was removed the car rolled back into
the depression across the rear of the shed and off the sloping stands under the front
wheels, falling onto the apprentice. The car was an automatic. Two steel stands were in
front of the car each in line with a front wheel. These stands were the front section of
drive-on ramps. There were no wheel chocks on the stands but chocks made to use with
the stands were in the shed. Both rear wheels of the car were in a depression across the
entrance to the shed.
An unemployed man was working on his vehicle. The place was a garage at the back of
the mans girlfriends house. He was experienced at servicing cars, including replacing
engines. On this occasion, his girlfriend dropped him off at her place whilst she went out,
and he proceeded to work on her other car, the engine of which he had just replaced. The
car was up on two steel car ramps but was not chocked, whereas when he worked with his
friends he usually did chock the back wheel. Although the incident was not witnessed, it
appears that he got under the car to work on it, and at some stage the car rolled back off
the ramps and crushed him. The car was found to have a broken center roll pin, which
effectively meant that the car was in neutral if the engine was stopped and the T-bar was in
any position other than neutral.
An unemployed farm worker was working under his motor vehicle. The vehicle was
jacked up off the ground and the farm worker was removing various parts from underneath
the vehicle. The ground that the vehicle was parked on was a soft grassy area situated
approx. 20 metres from the rear of the farm workers house. The land was also sloping and
the vehicle was jacked up using a small two tonne hydraulic jack. It would appear that the
jack was sitting on a pile of regular house bricks and wooden board. The jack slipped off
this pile of bricks, causing the vehicle to fall to the ground and to pin the farm worker to
the ground.
An elderly retiree was doing some repairs to a car at his own home. It appears that the
retiree was removing the shock absorbers from the rear of his car. To accomplish this, he
had used the cars usual jack to raise the rear left hand end of the vehicle, and raised the
front on another jack and some bricks, which provided only unsteady support. He then
removed one rear tyre. For some reason, the rear jack then fell, crushing him, probably
because the car moved as a result of the unsteady support at the front of the vehicle.
An unemployed car mechanic was working on his motor vehicle in the rear garage at his
home. The vehicle was situated over a pit in the garage and three quarters of the pit was
covered with horizontal boards. The passengers side of the vehicle was supported by
these boards. It would appear that the mechanic had been working on the vehicle from the
front of the pit. While working on the vehicle, it appears the vehicle rolled forward,
causing the passengers side of the vehicle to roll off the boards and into the pit, striking
the mechanic on the head. The vehicle, after being lifted from the pit, had to have gears
engaged and hand brake applied, indicating that the car was in neutral gear and the hand
brake was off when the mechanic entered the pit. There was a jack nearby lying on its
side, but it was unknown if it had been used by the mechanic.
A spraypainter had been working on his sedan during the evening assisted, by a workmate.
The vehicle was in the front yard on the lawn of the spraypainter's home. It was elevated at
the front wheels on a set of half ramps about 40 centimeters high, with the back wheels on
the ground. The gear box had been removed, repaired and placed back in position by the
spraypainter and his friend. The two went inside for tea. The spraypainter later went back
out to finish locking in the gear box and connecting the drive shaft. The friend went out
shortly afterwards, to find the vehicle had apparently rolled off the ramps backwards and
onto the spraypainter. The drive shaft of the vehicle was disconnected and the only means
of stabilising the vehicle was by the vehicle handbrake. Apparently chocks were not used
behind the rear wheels on the ground. A brick had been placed behind the back wheel but
was removed to support the gear box, as it was being replaced, and another object was not
replaced under the back tyre to support the car and prevent it rolling.
Fatalities whilst performing work duties
An earth moving contractor was working underneath a bobcat tractor, thought to be
changing the oil. The bobcat had its front wheels on a grass footpath and the rear wheels
on wooden blocks, when the machine slipped or rolled off the blocks, trapping the
contractor underneath. There was no evidence of chocks being used to prevent the bobcat
from rolling either forward or backward. One of the major retailers of bobcats in the area
was contacted by an occupational health and safety inspector and asked to warn
owner/drivers in the area to follow manufacturers recommendations for servicing.
A panel beater, who owned and operated a motor wrecking/panel beating business, was in
the process of taking a part from one of the cars in his yard. He was working underneath
the car, with the car supported at the front by two car stands and at the back by two stacks
of house bricks. It appears the car fell onto him as he has pulled the part away from the
car. He was working alone at the time. The yard area he was working in had a slight slope
and was uneven, with pot holes. The panel beater was normally a careful person and a
friend could not understand why he had used bricks to support the car when he had
available a hydraulic jack and other car stands.
A gardener/carpenter was underneath a page rotary slasher class 1000z (weight 750 kg)
that was connected to a tractor by means of a power take off (PTO) shaft that revolved at
1890 rpm. He was attempting to change the blades of the slasher, as one of the blades was
broken. The slasher was not chocked up and was accidentally lowered onto the
gardener/carpenter when a dog bumped the controls in the cabin of the tractor. The tractor
was started up to engage the hydraulics to lift the slasher off the gardener, but the operator
had forgotten the PTO was on and the worker received massive head injuries from the
blades of the slasher. Initially the PTO had been turned off, as was usual practice.
However, the blades of the slasher kept revolving making it difficult to change the blade,
so the PTO was turned on to keep the blades still. An employee of the gardener was also
underneath the slasher when it came down, however he was able to escape being pinned
by the slasher. The gardener/carpenter had ordered support blocks for the slasher, but they
had not yet arrived. There was some time pressure to complete the job. The gardener had
been given a government contract that would usually take up to seven or eight weeks to
complete. However, it had to be completed in six weeks (reason not specified). An
occupational health and safety (OHS) inspector issued a prohibition notice on the slasher
and this was to remain in force until the machine was repaired and maintained in a safe
condition. The Coroner supported recommendations made by the OHS report and also
added that animals or young children should not be left unattended in the cabins of
vehicles where there is likelihood that their interference with levers or switches could
create a dangerous situation. The OHS inspector stated the contributing factors to the
incident were:
(1) no wooden supports, steel props or other means were used to support the rotary slasher
during the removal of the blades;
(2) the PTO was engaged;
(3) a dog had access to and was inside the tractor cab; and
(4) the engine was started with a person under the slasher.
A department of OHS recommended:
(1) all rotary slasher machines shall be equipped with suitable means of support to be used
at all times when maintenance work is performed;
(2) suitable warning signs be displayed on the rotating slasher advising the use of support
props when maintenance is performed; and
(3) manufactures instruction manual to include a caution note regarding rotary slashers
safety precautions.
A male grazier was repairing a combine sower (planter) on his property. The sower
collapsed on top of him, crushing his chest. The grazier was working on the bearings
(having removed a wheel) of the combine sower, which had been jacked up by a hydraulic
jack sitting on a number of wooden blocks. He was hammering at the bearings to remove
them and the vibrations loosened the wooden blocks, causing the jack to collapse on him.
A labourer was killed when a truck rolled onto him whilst he was changing its tyres at his
workplace. The place was at a working yard of his building/construction employer in
what sounds like a rural-urban fringe. The labourer was cleaning and painting an
International Bogey wheel truck. He was under the truck changing the tyres, with the
truck raised on a hydraulic jack and blocks, with no blocking of the remaining tyres. It
appears he was lowering the truck when one set of wheels rolled forward, causing the
truck to slip off the jack and the front drivers side wheel to crush him.
A self-employed panel beater was working underneath a vehicle that was situated on a
grassy area at the rear of his workshop. The front end of the vehicle had been jacked up,
using a trolley jack. At the time of the incident, the weather was wet and the ground
soggy. It appears that the jack tipped over onto its side and the vehicle fell onto the panel
beater. There were no chocks in place for support in case the jack failed.
A grazier died of crush asphyxia when the car on which he was performing maintenance,
on his farm, fell off a car ramp and crushed his chest. The weather was not mentioned but
the ground was described as wet and slippery. The place was under a utility, probably a
farm vehicle, in a shed on the graziers property. He had put the ute up on steel ramps,
though apparently not properly, and put a wooden chock under one back wheel. The
grazier then got under the car on a mechanics trolley. For some reason, the car started to
roll backwards and the chock did not hold the car because the chock was resting on wet,
slippery ground just outside the shed.
Work-related fatalities in Australia, 1989 to 1992
General information regarding the study
Data sources
The study was conducted over a four year period, 1989 to 1992. This period was chosen
because 1992 was the most recent year for which appropriate data could be accessed at the
time the study commenced, and it was thought that four years of data was likely to be needed
to answer some of the study questions of interest (such as those concerning sub-groups where
only a few deaths occurred).
A list of all external cause deaths was obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics
(ABS). The death registration numbers from the ABS list were matched to names using the
National Deaths Index of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The names thus
obtained were used to identify the relevant coronial files for all external cause deaths in each
state and territory.
The coronial files were individually inspected by the study research officers to determine
whether the circumstances of the death met the study definitions of work-relatedness (ie that
the death was a case). For the case files, relevant material was photocopied and returned to the
study team in Sydney, who coded the information according to standard criteria, and then
analysed the data.
Specifically excluded from the study were suicide deaths, regardless of their apparent
relationship to work factors, and all disease deaths.
Case definitions
A broad definition of work-relatedness was used in this study, and cases were divided into
eight separate categories. Working, commuting and bystanders were the main categories of
interest in the study.
Working comprised working persons who were fatally injured as a result of work activity.
This is the main group of interest and the focus of the data presented in this report.
The working group was divided into two subgroups - workplace and work-road. The
work-road group comprised workers who were killed in motor vehicle accidents on public
roads in the course of their work (note that this group does NOT include commuters). The
workplace group comprised all other workers who were fatally injured as a result of work
activity. These people were usually injured in some form of fixed workplace. The separation
of the workplace and work-road groups was made for various reasons, including the
likelihood that much of the approach to prevention is likely to be different for the two groups.
Commuters were persons killed whilst travelling to or from work. There are differing
opinions as to whether commuters should be included in a study of work-related traumatic
death. They were included in this study because some states and territories pay workers
compensation for injuries sustained whilst commuting, some commuting deaths are clearly
related to work activity (eg a shift worker falling asleep whilst driving home from work), and
they were included in the first work-related fatalities study (WRFS 1) which was to be used
for comparison. The first study covered the three year period 1982 to 1984.
Bystanders were persons who were not working but who were killed as a result of exposure
to the work activity of other persons. The bystander group was also divided into two
subgroups - workplace bystanders and road bystanders. Workplace bystanders were any
persons not working who were fatally injured as a result of workplace activities usually not
associated with public roads or public transport. However, persons travelling in the cabins of
working vehicles were included in this group. Road bystanders were persons not working
who were fatally injured in motor vehicle accidents on a public road (or public transport) as a
result of other peoples work, where the working vehicle was primarily at fault in the
incident. Examples included pedestrians or persons in vehicles hit by a semi-trailer whose
driver had lost control of the vehicle, or pedestrians or persons in vehicles struck by a police
car involved in a high speed chase.
Contact details
All inquiries about the study should be directed to one of the members of the study team in the
Epidemiology Unit:
Tim Driscoll email: driscolt@nohsc.gov.au
Sandra Healey email: healeys@nohsc.gov.au
The address of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission is:
Postal address: GPO Box 58
Sydney NSW 2001