This Safety and Health Information Bulletin is not a

standard or regulation, and it creates no new legal

obligations. The Bulletin is advisory in nature, informational in content, and is intended to assist employers

in providing a safe and healthful workplace. Pursuant

to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers must comply with hazard-specific safety and

health standards promulgated by OSHA or by a state

with an OSHA-approved state plan. In addition,

pursuant to Section 5(a)(1), the General Duty Clause

of the Act, employers must provide their employees

with a workplace free from recognized hazards likely

to cause death or serious physical harm. Employers

can be cited for violating the General Duty Clause if

there is a recognized hazard and they do not take

reasonable steps to prevent or abate the hazard.

However, failure to implement any recommendations

in this Safety and Health Information Bulletin is not, in

itself, a violation of the General Duty Clause. Citations can only be based on standards, regulations, and

the General Duty Clause.

This SHIB does not constitute an endorsement by

OSHA of any one specific engineered method to

reduce or eliminate the hazard that is a subject of this

SHIB.

U. S. Department of Labor

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Directorate of Science, Technology & Medicine

Office of Science and Technology Assessment

SHIB 09-18-2006

Safety and Health Information Bulletin

Hazards of Unintended Movement of

Dump Truck Body Beds

Preface

Performing maintenance work underneath the dump

body of a dump truck presents extraordinary hazards

to maintenance or servicing personnel. During an

OSHA inspection at a heavy construction equipment

maintenance shop, an employee was observed

working between the elevated 4,000 pound dump

body and the truck’s frame. The employee could not

utilize the truck’s original “body prop” to support the

dump body since the “body prop” would not position

the dump body high enough for the employee to

access the back of the truck. Consequently,

employees place themselves under the elevated dump

bed without proper protection.

A citation was issued for failing to provide lockout

procedures while employees were working under the

dump body and for failing to isolate and sufficiently

block the dump body prior to doing work under the

dump body. As a result, the employer contacted the

University of Wisconsin-Madison Structures and

Materials Testing Laboratory to develop truck bed

brace brackets that would support loads over 47,000

lbs. This represented a significant engineering

challenge and the positive outcome that resulted

should be shared with other employers.

Purpose

The purpose of this Safety and Health Information

Bulletin (SHIB) is to:

• Alert employers and employees who service

or maintain dump trucks or haulage trucks

about the hazard of falling dump truck beds;

• Remind employers that in construction

settings, 29 CFR 1926.600 (a)(3)(i) requires

that dump bodies shall be fully lowered or

blocked when being repaired or when not in

use;

• 29 CFR 1926.601(b)(10) also requires that in

construction settings, trucks with dump bodies

shall be equipped with positive means of

support, permanently attached, and capable of

being locked in position to prevent accidental

lowering of the body while maintenance or

inspection work is being done; and
2

Figure 1. Body props are commonly misused when raised

upright without having the weight of the bed supported or

braced. Body props are subject to rust and damage, and

need to be properly maintained.

• Detail actions to prevent unintended falling of

the dump truck bed, which include

implementing components of a lockout/tagout

program.

Background

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration

(OSHA) reviewed its Integrated Management

Information System (IMIS) accident data, and

identified 31 accidents during the past 10 years that

involved the unanticipated release or movement of an

elevated truck bed. Nearly all of the accidents resulted

in fatalities. OSHA urges employers whose

employees service or maintain dump trucks to

implement an effective Lockout/Tagout Program in

general industry settings or to implement the above

referenced construction standards in construction

settings to prevent unintended releases or movement

of the truck beds which can result in a employee’s

death or serious injuries.

Typically, employee exposures occurred during routine

maintenance or during troubleshooting activities. Work

performed under the raised beds involved repairs to

air or hydraulic lines, framework welding, electrical

wires and release cables, power take-off shafts,

hydraulic pumps, fuel pumps, and routine greasing.

Body props were not used, or were used improperly,

in a majority of the accidents. In a few cases, the

props were used but they failed. Causes for the

sudden movement of the dump bodies included:

inadvertent control operation, inadvertently pulling a

release cable, hydraulic failure, and premature

reconnecting of an air line.

The following three sample OSHA cases illustrate

some of the problems faced when using nonengineered dump body props. (Ref: OSHA IMIS).

• Example 1: An employee was replacing the

rear stabilizer bar on a tandem dump truck.

The dump bed was raised and the safety

support was in place. At some point, the lift

hydraulics for the dump bed failed, allowing

the weight of the bed to rest on the safety

support bracket which also failed, causing the

bed to come down and crush the employee.

• Example 2: Two employees were installing a

dump bed onto a dump truck. The dump bed

was being raised up and down by slings

attached to a bridge crane. The dump bed

had been raised and lowered several times to

make sure that the bed was aligned on the

truck chassis correctly. The back of the dump

bed was bolted in place. The dump bed was

then raised one more time so that a tubular

rod could be placed under the bed to hold it in

the upright position while one employee

worked under the raised bed. While placing

the tubular rod under the dump bed, the safety

latch on the crane hook failed. This allowed

the slings to come off the hook. The dump

bed pinned both of the employee’s arms

under the bed between the chassis and the

dump bed.

• Example 3: An employee was greasing the

U-joints on a 1970 Mack dump truck. He

had raised the dump bed and had propped it

up with a 4’’ by 6’’ by 8’ piece of wood. The

wood dislodged and the bed came down onto

his back, pinning and seriously injuring him.

The employee later died.
One reason that the props provided by the truck body

manufacturers are not used, or are not used

appropriately, is that when raised to the typical body

prop height, there may not be sufficient accessible

space to perform the needed maintenance.

Mechanics need to access the rear of the truck where

damage often occurs to air or hydraulic hoses,

electrical lines, control cables and hydraulic motors.

To access these areas, the truck body must be moved

to a higher position than is supported by the

manufacturer’s prop. In these circumstances,

employers often need to provide additional bracing or

support. However, if not properly designed to support

the weight of the dump body, these methods can be

ineffective and lead to serious accidents. Employers

should therefore ensure that, before making

inspections, adjustments, or repairs under dump truck

bodies, strong, heavy, positive supports are used to

keep the dump body from inadvertently lowering.

The supports/cribbing methods shown in Figures 2

and 3 are examples of makeshift body props that do

not safely support the dump body in an elevated

position. Since these makeshift devices are not

designed to safely support the elevated dump body

they can inadvertantly slip out of the truck frame while

maintenance work is performed underneath the dump

body.

3

Truck Props

Strong, heavy, positive supports are provided by

dump bed manufacturers in the form of body props.

Body props are non-adjustable and will support the

dump body at only one position that is close to the

maximum elevated dump angle. Therefore, the need

to inspect and/or work on the dump bed at an angle

other than the one provided by the body prop will

require additional or alternative protection.

Figure 3. Shows a steel I-beam makeshift body prop: steel

I-beam sits across truck frame. The I-beam is not attached to

the truck frame or dump body. The I-beam could be displaced

in the direction of the arrow by the inadvertent movement of

the dump body or truck frame.

Figure 4. Positive supports are provided by dump bed

manufacturers in the form of body props. Body props are

non-adjustable and will support the dump body at one

position only.

Figure 2. Shows a wooden block makeshift body prop.
Figure 5.

4

Truck Bed Brace Bracket for Dump Box

As a result of the significant risk of injury or death to

employees working between the frame and dump box

of a dump truck, one employer developed braces to

secure the dump box while employees serviced areas

on the rear axles, or drive lines, and repaired the air

cylinders for the tailgates that was not reachable using

the manufacturer’s prop. Three tests were conducted

on one prototype brace at the Structures and

Materials Testing Laboratory at the University of

Wisconsin - Madison using a 1-million pound test

machine calibrated to National Institute of Standards

and Technology (NIST) traceable standards. Loads

were applied to the brackets at the rate of 10,000

lbs./min. The braces successfully passed the test.

The following is an example of the prototype truck

bed brace brackets (see Figures 5, 6 and 7) that were

developed by the employer and can be used

universally on any brand of dump box. The standard

flange is 3.5 inches and the braces will fit up to a 4.5

inch channel. In addition, these braces have a handle

that allows the employee to place the brace under the

dump box without creating an additional hazard. The

employee must rest the brace on the frame of the

truck while standing next to the tires.

Figure 7. Truck bed brace bracket (top channel supporting

dump body.)

Conclusions

Manufacturers of dump trucks provide body props or

braces as standard equipment but they are nonadjustable. If a higher angle is needed to access the

rear of the truck, the manufacturer-provided standard

prop can not be used when performing some of the

service functions safely. The employer needs to

specifically address the hazards of this condition and

how to protect employees from these hazards. This

SHIB raises awareness that the manufacturer’s

standard body prop or support may not be adequate

to perform certain jobs safely. The employer should

determine whether the manufacturer can provide an

alternative body prop that would raise the dump truck

Figure 6. Truck bed brace bracket (bottom channel).

Engineered truck bed brace brackets.
5

OSHA’s general industry standard, 29 CFR

1910.147(c)(1), requires employers to “establish a

program consisting of energy control procedures,

employee training and periodic inspections to ensure

that before any employee performs any servicing or

maintenance on a machine or equipment

 where the...release of stored energy could

occur and cause injury, the machine or

equipment shall be isolated from the energy

source and rendered inoperative.”

 Additionally, in general industry settings, OSHA’s

standard, 29 CFR 1910.147(c)(7)(i), requires

employers to “provide training to ensure that the

purpose and function of the energy control program

are understood by employees and that the knowledge

and skills required for the safe application, usage, and

removal of the energy controls are acquired by

employees.” Training shall include, but is not limited

to, instruction in controlling hazards of heavy

equipment maintenance, specific procedures, and

appropriate devices.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and

Health (NIOSH) has also studied the hazards

associated with dump truck maintenance. The

NIOSH Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation

Program (FACE), conducted investigations to identify

risk factors that contribute to workplace fatalities and

it offers recommended intervention strategies to

prevent future fatal workplace accidents. For

information on FACE investigations related to dump

trucks, see http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/face/stateface/

wv/00wv011.html and http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/

face/stateface/wv/98wv029.html.

The following actions can protect employees from the

hazards faced when working under a raised dump

truck dump body:

• Ensure that elevated parts of heavy

equipment are suitably supported from

unexpected movement while being serviced.

OSHA’s construction standard, 29 CFR

1926.600(a)(3)(i), requires that: “heavy

machinery, equipment, or parts thereof which

are suspended or held aloft... shall be

substantially blocked or cribbed to prevent

falling or shifting before employees are

permitted to work under or between them.”

• Train employees on the hazards associated

with working around functioning or

malfunctioning dump body systems.

OSHA’s construction standard, 29 CFR

1926.21(b)(2), requires that “the employer

shall instruct each employee in the recognition

and avoidance of unsafe conditions...”

• Contact the original equipment

manufacturer to discuss an

alternative body prop or other suitable

methods to perform maintenace or

repair work.

• Engineer safeguard mechanisms/systems such

as a “truck bed brace bracket” that will

enable a device to be positioned in any fixed

positionto eliminate or prevent employee

exposure to hazardous conditions

while maintaining or servicing such equipment.

bed sufficiently to allow safe access for repairs or

maintenance at the rear of the truck or otherwise

ensure that the truck body is positively restrained from

unexpected movement. Therefore, OSHA

recommends that employers contact the manufacturer

to determine if alternative body props are available, or

to discuss other suitable methods to support the truck

bed if the standard procedures are not possible.

For additional information on the prototype truck bed

body prop brace, contact OSHA’s

Madison,Wisconsin area office at (608) 441-5388.

For information on the ISO standard that provides the

performance criteria for truck bed supports, refer to

ISO 13333:1994 Earth-moving machinery-Dumper

body support and operators cab tilt support devices.