You are the SH manager at a large box retail store. One morning around 8 am, one of the shopping cart collectors is found lying on the ground under a pick-up truck in the parking lot. He is incoherent, lying on the ground, and moving, putting his hands behind his head. The employee lacked any visible evidence of physical trauma at this time. Shortly thereafter, the employee was transported by ambulance to a hospital for medical treatment. He died two days later on August 19, 2006. The autopsy report, in November stated the cause of the employee’s death was “blunt head trauma with subdural hematoma and brain contusions,” with a contributory cause of “hepatic cirrhosis due to chronic alcoholism and hepatitis C infection.” Is this a workplace fatality that requires you to report this fatality within 8 hours of the worker’s death (i.e. 1904.39(a))? In this OSHRC case, the store thought not, but OSHA thought yes…so it went to the OSHRC, where it was vacated. The OSHRC stated…Based on the record in this case, we conclude the Secretary has not shown by a preponderance of the evidence that an identifiable event occurred in the XXXXXXXX parking lot to cause the employee’s head trauma. Accordingly, the Secretary has failed to make the threshold showing that the employee’s death was from a work-related incident.Click Here to see the entire decision.