REPORT URGED ON RASH OF INJURIES.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

Alarmed by a string of accidents involving city sanitation workers, including one in which a trash truck driver was pinned by a mechanical arm, Los Angeles City Council members called Friday for a report explaining why so many employees are being injured.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg submitted a motion to the council Friday asking the Sanitation Bureau to report to the Personnel Committee on whether there are problems that need to be addressed.

``While accidents and injuries can happen when individuals work with heavy equipment, this rash of injuries may be an indicator of other problems,'' Goldberg said.

Goldberg cited three accidents in the past month in West Los Angeles, including one in which a truck driver cleaning debris from his vehicle accidentally hit a button that activated a hydraulic arm that briefly pinned him against the vehicle, causing minor injuries.

In the same week, a worker was injured when he fell off the rear step of a moving trash truck when it hit a speed bump, causing minor injuries that required two days in the hospital. Three days later, another worker fell from his truck and hit his head on the pavement, also requiring minor medical attention.

Bureau chief Marilyn McGuire said all three accidents were caused by employee error, including two involving new workers with temporary summer jobs.

``It was a combination of inattentiveness and inexperience,'' she said, adding ``We are intensifying our training to prevent these kinds of incidents from occurring.''

So far this year, 342 city sanitation workers have been injured on the job, most of them minor incidents that did not require employees to take time off. In comparison, 491 workers were injured through November of 1996.

Goldberg said there may not be a problem, but she is concerned enough from hearing about injuries to seek more information.

In addition, Goldberg said she is particularly watchful over the Sanitation Bureau since the December 1995 accident in which the hydraulic arm of a trash compactor broke through the walls of a trash truck and raked a school bus, killing two children.