OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14241210
THE WESTERN COMPANY OF NORTH AMERICA
CHESTER, OK·
Event description
EMPLOYEE STRUCK BY OIL WELL CHOKE VALVE
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS BLEEDING THE PRESSURE OFF THE WELLHEAD THROUGH A CHOKE VALVE WHI CH WAS MOUNTED ON THE WELLHEAD CONTROL (TREE). THE CHOKE VALVE WAS OPENED JUST E NOUGH TO ALLOW PRESSURE TO ESCAPE AT THE UNION, WHICH WAS DISCONNECTED FROM THE SEPARATOR LINE. EMPLOYEE #1 INSTRUCTED ANOTHER WORKER TO RAISE THE WELLHEAD PROT ECTOR OUT OF THE TREE. AS THE WELLHEAD PROTECTOR CUP WAS RAISED PAST THE CHOKE V ALVE, THE CHOKE VALVE ASSEMBLY WAS PRESSURIZED BY PRESSURE FROM WITHIN THE TREE. THIS PRESSURE BUILDUP CAUSED THE CHOKE VALVE TO SPIN OFF THE MOUNTING NIPPLE. I T BLEW OUTWARD OFF THE TREE AND STRUCK EMPLOYEE #1 IN THE CHEST.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 27 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 20
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 5
- 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.