105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14201842

FRACTURE,HEAD,WIRE ROPE,CONSTRUCTION,HOIST,STRUCK BY,HEADACHE BALL,CRANE

Event
FRACTURE,HEAD,WIRE ROPE,CONSTRUCTION,HOIST,STRUCK BY,HEADACHE BALL,CRANE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14201842
Report ID
352430

Event description

EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN STRUCK BY "HEADACHE BALL"

Investigation abstract

On June 8, 1989, Employee #1 and coworkers engaged in moving approximately one-a nd-a-half-ton iron runners a distance of 100 yards in order to clear areas for a new road using a flatbed tractor-trailer and a Grove RT65S 35 ton hydraulic cra ne. The operator of the crane had landed two or three runners using the four-par t main block. Employee #1 was reaching for the choker when the crane operator in advertently expressed the boom, blocking the auxiliary hoist, and causing the wi re rope to part. The "pill" struck Employee #1 killing him. Human error was dete rmined to be the cause, and no violations were noted.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 34 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    1
    Source
    27
    Occupation code
    597
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    2

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.