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 #14203970

SAWDUST,SUFFOCATED,WORK RULES,FLOWING MATERIAL,BURIED

Event
SAWDUST,SUFFOCATED,WORK RULES,FLOWING MATERIAL,BURIED
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14203970
Report ID
1054114

Event description

SUFFOCATED WHEN BURIED BY LOOSE SAWDUST

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 WAS SMOOTHING OUT THE TOP OF THE SAWDUST BIN AND SHOVELING AN ACCUMU AL HOSPITAL. LATION OF SAWDUST AWAY FROM THE CONVEYOR OUTFEED TO OTHER PARTS OF THE BIN. A CH IP TRUCK ARRIVED AND BACKED INTO THE LOADING CHUTE UNDER THE BIN. THE TRUCK DRIV ER WAS UNAWARE THAT EMPLOYEE #1 WAS WORKING IN THE BIN. THE BIN GATES WERE OPENE D AND EMPLOYEE #1 FELL, ALONG WITH A LARGE AMOUNT OF SAWDUST, INTO THE TRUCK TRA ILER. A NEARBY EMPLOYEE OF THE MILL, WHO KNEW THAT EMPLOYEE #1 WAS IN THE BIN, A SKED WHERE HE WAS. EMPLOYEE #1 COULD NOT BE FOUND DURING A QUICK PERSONNEL INVEN TORY, SO AN IMMEDIATE SEARCH WAS BEGUN IN THE TRUCK TRAILER. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS FOU ND, STILL ALIVE, BUT WITH A VERY WEAK PULSE. HE DIED LATER THE SAME DAY AT A LOC

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 24 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    9
    Source
    14
    Occupation code
    495
    Human factor
    20
    Environmental factor
    8
    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.