The tragic death of a 19 year old Metro Public Works Employee last summer has raised questions about safety and staffing inside the department.
Chandler Harris had never worked on a garbage truck before, yet supervisors sent him out that night with no training.
But NewsChannel 5 Investigates has learned Harris was not the only person who should not have been on the truck that night.
The driver Larry Trenary, 58, had a history of accidents and severe hearing loss.
Trenary said supervisors told him to drive that night when another employee did not come into work.
Downtown surveillance video from July 14, 2015 shows the final minutes of Chandler Harris's life.
You can see him standing on the back of a city garbage truck as it picked up trash near 5th and Commerce around 11pm.
Heath Baird was walking to his car and is still disturbed by what he witnessed.
"I couldn't believe what I saw. The truck was backing up and he kind of hit a curb. He was just at a bad angle," Baird said.
The truck backed into an alley toward some trash cans. Harris was standing on the bumper, but the driver was off course.
"It kept scrapping the building and at that point some people were like, hey stop, stop, stop," Baird said.
Tragically Harris was knocked to the ground.
The truck backed over him once, then pulled forward running over him a second time.
He was crushed him to death.
Josh Easler is a close family friend, who watched Chandler Harris grow up.
"It feels like nobody is taking responsibility for what happened," Easler said.
Harris had only been with Public Works for three months.
"He wanted to be a Metro police officer which is why he was working at public works. He was too young to go to the police academy," Easler said.
"The reason he ended up on the trash truck was because he got there a couple hours early. They were short a man and they put him on that duty, and it cost him his life," Easler said.
But Harris wasn't the only untrained person on the truck that night because of staffing problems, so was the driver.
"I hate the situation happened. I wouldn't hurt nobody for the world," said driver, Larry Trenary.
We talked to Trenary outside his home.
He declined a formal interview but told us his boss told him to drive because another employee didn't show up.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, " How much training did you get?"
Trenary responded, "I wasn't trained at all to do that job."
Our investigation discovered Trenary rarely drove garbage trucks.
He usually drove much smaller, slower sweeper trucks.
And even then he had more than a dozen accidents over the course of his career.
But Trenary also had a history of severe hearing problems.
On his original employment application, when asked if he had "any physical defect, disease or disability." Trenary marked yes, and wrote "Hearing problem."
In 2008 a Metro supervisor wrote "employee has severe loss of hearing now."
The supervisor noted it was made worse by "15 years" of driving "very very loud" street cleaning trucks.
Metro's doctor found Trenary was "Injured on Duty" for "noise induced hearing loss."
Trenary told investigators he "didn't hear" people trying to stop him the night Chandler Harris died.
"A lot of people were just yelling and going like hey stop, stop just trying to get his attention," Baird remembered.
Witnesses say he didn't stop until someone banged on his window.
"They actually got on at the driver side and said, 'hey stop' and he finally stopped," Baird said.
Despite Trenary's well documented history, his supervisors ordered him drive that night.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "What did the boss say?"
Trenary said, "Huh?"
NewsChannel 5 Investigates repeated, "What did the boss tell you?"
Trenary said, "Well they told me a job to do. I went and done the best I could do it. But I wasn't used to that truck. It was a whole lot bigger truck than I was used to."
The Department of Labor blasted Metro Public Works for failing to train its employees.
It said employees were unaware of basic safety standards which prohibit people from standing on the back of trucks while they are in reverse.
Public works veteran Mark Macy took over the department in September when Mayor Barry took office.
"I can change things going forward. I can't change what's happened in the past," Macy said in September during his first week as director.
"One thing we are doing with new employees is we train them first before they go out in the field," Macy said during the September interview.
But Macy wouldn't speak about what happened that night in July.
Friends and family of Chandler Harris see this as a warning about what can happen when understaffing and lack of training collide.
"We know there was a driver and he probably shouldn't have been driving that truck," Easler said.
Metro Public Works responded to several questions via e-mail. You can see their full response below:
1) Was any employee, supervisors or otherwise, disciplined as a result of this incident? If so who and in what way?
Immediately following the tragic incident, driver Larry Trenary was placed on leave, and a charge letter for negligence was issued.
At that point, the employee retired and is no longer with Metro. Further, TriAD/Stantec was hired to conduct a review of our safety program.
While the initial assessment has been completed, a comprehensive safety review is currently ongoing. This second phase includes recommendations on organizational structure, staffing, and determination of skills, experience, knowledge and abilities required for specific MPW positions.
This information will help confirm that employees have the requisite training and experience required to safely do their jobs and will provide MPW with the information needed to pursue additional disciplinary action.
2) The driver, Larry Trenary, is no longer with Public Works. Was he fired or did he retire? Was he disciplined for the July 14, 2015 incident?
See above.
3) Metro Public Works said it hired a consulting firm TriAD in conjunction with Stantec immediately after the incident to look into safety and training at Public Works. Please provide their findings and full report.
Attached is the initial report. TriAD/Stantec is now working with MPW to provide technical safety consulting support and to address each of the 15 observations in their initial review. Below are some examples of progress made to address those observations:
- New MPW Safety Manual: Working to create a safety manual specific to MPW's needs that is consistent with Metro's Safety Guidelines and TOSHA requirements. To date, final drafts have been developed for a Hearing Conservation Program, Emergency Action Plan, and Chemical Hazard Communication Plan.
- Emergency Action Plan and evacuation maps have been developed and posted for each MPW site. Employee meetings around these new maps are taking place as the next step. The maps include information specific to each building on the location of fire extinguishers, AEDs, evacuation routes, shelter-in-place areas, first aid kit locations, and spill kit locations.
- Job Hazard Analysis (JHA): MPW is creating JHAs for each field activity to establish the necessary safety training, protective equipment, and policies and procedures for employees to perform their jobs.
- Organization Structure and Staffing Review: MPW has been working with TriAD/Stantec to develop a model safety program and have been reviewing the necessary program roles, responsibilities, knowledge, skills and abilities required. The model places the Safety Manager role in the center of the organization. The Safety Manager will provide leadership and oversight of safety programs, training, inspections and audits, maintain and provide personal protective equipment (PPE), maintain the new safety IT system, and serve as the safety subject matter expert. MPW has initiated the process to hire a Safety Manager.
- New Employee Orientation and Safety Training: Newly hired employees are required to this training prior to beginning their work. This training covers Hepatitis B, Bloodborne Pathogens, Safe Backing (which includes information on the ANSI standard), Work Zone Safety, Right to Know, Hazard Communications, Personal Protective Equipment and more. Additionally, employees receive on the job training that provides them with proper operating procedures for vehicles and equipment prior to use. Current employees have been retrained in OSHA and Department specific training requirements.
- We have begun implementation of a new software package, IHS Compliance Suite, that will allow us to manage and monitor compliance with safety training as well as job specific safety requirements. This software will additionally promote consistency in maintaining records.
- Hazardous Materials/Workplace Chemical List: MPW has overhauled the process to keep the workplace chemical list up to date and accurate for each facility.
- Asbestos and Lead Paint Surveys are scheduled (kick off meeting with contractor to begin surveys 2/2/16.
In summary, MPW is working to address deficiencies that existed in our safety program. We continue to grieve the loss of Chandler Harris. We will continue to develop, with leadership from our Director, a top notch safety program so that no similar incident ever occurs. Change has been put into motion in every aspect of our safety program and tremendous strides have been made to reinforce and strengthen the program as evidenced in part by the attached January 5, 2016 TOSHA follow-up letter citing no violations.
