104,543Records 70,659Employers 84,666Hospitalizations 27,563Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-09-30
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14217210

SEWER,ASPHYXIATED,SAND,ANKLE,COLLAPSE,JACKHAMMER,TRENCH,BURIED,SPRAIN

Event
SEWER,ASPHYXIATED,SAND,ANKLE,COLLAPSE,JACKHAMMER,TRENCH,BURIED,SPRAIN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14217210
Report ID
950411

Event description

ONE EMPLOYEE KILLED, ONE INJURED IN TRENCH COLLAPSE

Investigation abstract

Employees #1 and #2 were working in the bottom of a trench 12 feet deep and appr oximately 15 feet wide by 35 feet long. Employees #1 and #2 were using a jack ha mmer to cut open a storm sewer so that a parking lot drain could be hooked into the storm sewer. The unshored walls of the trench, which consisted of well round ed gravel and sand, caved in on the employees. Employee #1 was completely buried and died of asphyxia. Employee #2 was buried up to his chest but was rescued, h ospitalized, and treated for a sprained ankle, cuts, body bruising.

Victims (3)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 41 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 23 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #981 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0

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.