Track Loader Flips, Crushes Worker’s Leg

A heavy equipment operator’s thigh was crushed Monday when a piece of machinery weighing 15 to 20 tons flipped over as he was using it to clear trees for a Ventura reservoir expansion, authorities said.

Pat Gifford, 50, of Chatsworth was in serious condition at Ventura County Medical Center after undergoing surgery.

Gifford, an employee of Ventura-based California Land Clearing, was using a Caterpillar track loader to push over a large eucalyptus tree when the accident occurred on the construction site north of Hill Road, city officials said.

“When the tree went over, the root ball came up, hit the underside of the Cat and just rolled it over,” said Capt. Kevin Rennie of the Ventura Fire Department.

“His left leg was trapped beneath the safety cage and crushed.”

A conscious Gifford was trapped for about 15 minutes after the 9:20 a.m. incident as 11 firefighters used lumber to brace the track loader and prevent it from crushing him further while they shoveled earth from beneath it to free him, Rennie said.

The tree flipped the track loader “like it didn’t weigh anything at all,” said company President Doug Muelder. “This tree was 140 feet tall, [the] stump and ball was in excess of 12 feet” in diameter.

California Land Clearing was hired to remove more than 100 large trees from the site, he said.

The $6.4-million expansion of a concrete reservoir and water-treatment plant began in January and is expected to be completed in about 18 months, said Ken Lewis, construction manager for the project.