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 #14222970

CHEST,INSTALLING,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,PIPE,SHORING,BURIED,CAVE-IN,HIP,SPRAIN

Event
CHEST,INSTALLING,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,PIPE,SHORING,BURIED,CAVE-IN,HIP,SPRAIN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14222970
Report ID
551800

Event description

ONE KILLLED, ONE INJURED IN TRENCH CAVE-IN

Investigation abstract

At approximately 11:00 a.m. on November 1, 1985, Employee #1 and Employee #2 wer e laying an 8-in by 6-ft clay sewer pipe in an unshored trench, 15 feet deep. As the employees attempted to leave the trench over the backfill, the trench began to cave in. Sand covered Employee #1 to his ankles and Employee #2 went to his aid. At this point the west wall caved in and covered Employee #1 completely and covered Employee #2 to his waist. Employee #1 died of a rupture of the right ve ntricle of the heart and Employee #2 received a strain/sprain to the hips.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 32 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    599
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    13
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 33 M

    Nature of injury
    20
    Part of body
    14
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    558
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    13
    Task assigned
    1

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.