12/01/2010 - Worker Crushed by Falling Computer

A MAN has died after computer equipment fell on him while it was being unloaded from a semi-trailer at a Melbourne freight warehouse.

Ambulance Victoria said the 60-year-old man died at the scene at AirRoad in Boundary Road, Laverton North, just after 3pm (AEDT) today.

“It appears the man was helping others unload a large computer server from the back of a truck,” ambulance clinical support officer Mark Lamb said.

“The equipment has started to slip from a forklift and it appears that the man has tried to stop it.

“It has then fallen on him and he has suffered critical head and chest injuries.”

Workmates applied CPR before fire crews and paramedics arrived but the man died a short time later.
A WorkSafe spokesman said the equipment weighed 200kg and fell from a height of two metres.

It was resting on castors and was not on a pallet.

There have been 57 deaths involving forklifts in Victorian workplaces since 1985.

Sixteen of those deaths were caused by equipment falling from a forklift.