104,543Records 70,659Employers 84,666Hospitalizations 27,563Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-09-30
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14257208

COMPRESSOR,COMPRESSED AIR,EXPLOSION,LACERATION,STRUCK BY,ARM,FLYING OBJECT

Event
COMPRESSOR,COMPRESSED AIR,EXPLOSION,LACERATION,STRUCK BY,ARM,FLYING OBJECT
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14257208
Report ID
453710

Event description

STRUCK BY FLYING PIECES OF EXPLODING AIR COMPRESSOR

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE # 1 WAS WALKING THROUGH THE BOILER ROOM ON HIS WAY OUT OF THE PLANT WHE LD. N A NEARBY AIR COMPRESSOR EXPLODED. HE RECEIVED NUMEROUS LACERATIONS, ESPECIALLY TO THE AREA OF HIS UPPER ARMS. EMPLOYEE #1 HAD NO RECOLLECTION OF THE ACCIDENT OR OF A TWO-HOUR PERIOD AFTERWARD. THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED AT AROUND 1:30 PM. DETA ILS ABOUT THE INCIDENT WERE PROVIDED BY OTHER EMPLOYEES. VIRGIL MERRILL AIR REPA IR (14 N. WESTWOOD AVE., THOMASVILLE, N.C.) HAD PROVIDED THE AIR COMPRESSOR WHIL E THEY WERE REPAIRING ANOTHER FROM THE PLANT. IN ADDITION TO EMPLOYEE #1'S INJUR IES, THE EXPLOSION ALSO CAUSED DAMAGE TO THE PLANT. THE NORTH CAROLINA BOILER AN D PRESSURE DIVISION DETERMINED THAT THE TANK HAD CRACKED DUE TO AN INADEQUATE WE

Victim

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 33 M

    Nature of injury
    7
    Part of body
    22
    Event type
    1
    Source
    2
    Occupation code
    633
    Human factor
    6
    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.