OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14224489
AVTEX FIBERS, INC.
FRONT ROYAL, VA·
Event description
VACUUM VESSEL IMPLODED, KILLING EMPLOYEE
Investigation abstract
ON NOVEMBER 11, 1986, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS TROUBLE SHOOTING A VACUUM LEAK IN AN ACID EVAPORATOR (COMPANY #14) IN UNIT #3, ACID RECLAIM DEPARTMENT. WHILE HE WAS EXAMI NING OR MAKING REPAIRS, THERE WAS A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE IN THE STEEL WALL OF TH E EVAPORATOR. THE RESULTING IMPLOSION PULLED EMPLOYEE #1 INTO THE EVAPORATOR. HE DIED FROM MULTIPLE SEVERE INJURIES, CHEMICAL BURNS AND SKULL FRACTURES.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 54 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 6
- Source
- 2
- Occupation code
- 48
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 15
- 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.