OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14224141
M. EDWARDS CUSTOM BUILDERS
HAMPTON, VA·
Event description
EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN WALL COLLAPSES
Investigation abstract
On December 2, 1985, Employee #1 was framing the second story of a townhouse apa rtment when a strong gust of wind blew against the adjacent cinderblock firewall s. The gust of wind, recorded at 57 mph at a nearby air force base, over stresse d (laterally) the cinderblock walls. The wall fractured at the base of the secon d floor and fell intact on Employee #1, striking and killing the employee, and b reaking up on impact. The cinderblock wall was 28 ft high (above ground elevatio n), and was 18 ft tall (from the base of the second floor where it fractured). T he vibration, as well as the continuing turbulent winds contributed to the colla pse of the adjacent wall and other portions of block work on neighboring units.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 40 M
- Nature of injury
- 3
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 8
- Occupation code
- 567
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 17
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#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.