OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14240865
HYDROGEN SULFIDE,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,OIL LINE,RUPTURE,SCBA,PIPELINE,TOXIC FUMES,OVEREXPOSURE
Event description
One killed, one injured when oil well flowline ruptures
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was standing in a 49 in. deep by 6 to 7 ft wide excavation. A 48 in. he excavation and collapsed. Employee #2 attempted to rescue him without wearing SCBA. When he realized that he was being overcome, he managed to exit the ditch and ran upwind before fainting. Employee #2 recovered without assistance, but E mployee #1 could not be revived. In an oil field, employees should not be in a t rench or excavation while a backhoe is being operated. They should be upwind and out of range of the boom to avoid danger from ruptured lines. deep by 3 ft wide trench was being dug, extending out from the excavation, and Employee #1 was about 7 to 8 ft from an oil well flowline that ran diagonally ac ross the new trench. Employee #2, who was operating a Case 580E backhoe, was att empting to remove a 10 in. by 18 in. rock that weighed between 20 and 30 lb from the vicinity of the flowline. Either falling rocks or the backhoe bucket ruptur ed the Centron fiberglass epoxy line pipe, CEN-450, and mixed crude oil/sour gas (87,000 PPM hydrogen sulfide) under 80 psi spewed out, striking Employee #1. In stead of climbing out of the trench in an upwind direction, he ran downwind to t
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 25 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 1480
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 28 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 1480
- 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.