Man, I have nightmares about what happened to you. I'm sorry it happened to you and I hope you get better soon. Just so you know, even though the package car was parked crooked, it will be made out to be your fault. One of the 5 keys to preventing slips and falls is look where you step and step where you look. Be prepared for them to hammer that into you. Sorry again!
Actually its the 4th element in the "5 keys to preventing slips and falls" which is "look before stepping". This is where UPS has you and can fault you for not following the methods
. Make sure you know these methods 100% when they follow-up the injury with you.
I would like to blame the driver or car wash employee who didn't square the package-car to the dock. For you to fall between there must have been a 1-foot space from the truck to the belt, is this correct? That is totatlly unacceptable from the person who parked the vehicle.
That being said, if you slip and fall you have only yourself to blame. I really believe this. Unless somebody else intentionally trips you, I think a slip and fall is on us.
I think every preloader should check his/her belt for gaps before starting her/his shift. You know this is a common place for injuries to occur, so why not take 2.5 seconds and look at your 4 package cars for spaces bewteen them and the belt?
Better yet, maybe the PT. sups. should walk the belt before every shift and make sure the trucks are parked in safe postions? Perhaps the FT. sup. should do this also? It would take him less than a minute to walk around the boxline and would save him thousands of $$ in injuries that didn't happen. Why isn't this first thing out FT. sup. does when arriving at the center?
Thanks for the post, I'm going to mention this to our safety committee tommorow
.