(L.A.) John Mercer, 50, Died in Signal Hill

Case Number: 2020-09578

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 50-year-old Caucasian male that occurred at a place of business.

The coroner’s office has identified the man as John Mercer, resident of Verdant Street in the 90039.

Manner of Death: Accident

Cause of Death: Multiple Blunt-Force and Crushing Injuries

RIP JOHN MERCER (August 10, 1970 – October 13, 2020)

Formal pronouncement of death was made on Tuesday at 5:22 p.m.

Incident Location: Mark’s Mobile Truck Services
3346 Olive Avenue, Signal Hill, CA 90755

Signal Hill is a city in L.A. County. Located high on a hill, it is an enclave completely surrounded by the city of Long Beach.

OSHA REPORT

The decedent was an employee working at a truck repair shop. He was in an outside yard area, repairing a customer’s Teledyne Princeton PiggyBack forklift. For part of the procedure, he was operating a Toyota forklift. He positioned the Toyota to face the Teledyne. He removed the carriage of the Teledyne by using a steel cable apparatus tied to the forks of the Toyota. The cable had too much tension, so the employee dismounted from the seat of the Toyota, climbed up, and stood in between the Toyota’s mast upright and overhead guard to get access to the latch on the cable.

As he released the tension on the cable, his foot slipped. It landed on the middle lever of the Toyota’s controls and depressed it. This action caused the mast upright to retract. The employee grabbed the moving chain inside the lift cylinder of the Toyota. He suffered an amputation to the index and middle fingers on his right hand.

As the mast upright began to retract, it squeezed and crushed the employee’s chest against the overhead guard. The employee screamed.

Two coworkers and an individual from a nearby business across the street heard the scream and responded.

They saw the employee’s body crushed between the mast upright and the overhead guard of the Toyota. The first coworker immediately turned off the Toyota forklift.

All three individuals attempted to pull the employee out from in between the mast and the overhead guard, but they could not. His body was still compressed between the upright and guard. The first coworker turned the Toyota forklift back on to release the employee’s body. The first coworker used the Toyota’s middle lever to push the mast upright forward and release the employee’s body.

The employee had suffered the amputation of the index and middle fingers on his right hand, as well as a crushing injury to his upper chest.

OSHA fined the employer about 25,000 dollars.