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 #14257471

KNEE,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,BURIED,CAVE-IN,CONTUSION

Event
KNEE,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,BURIED,CAVE-IN,CONTUSION
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14257471
Report ID
453710

Event description

Employee injured in trench cave-in

Investigation abstract

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on March 20, 1985, Employee #1 was preparing to lay a length of 6 in. drain pipe in a trench that was 30 feet long by 5 feet wide by 12 feet deep. The trench walls were nearly vertical and were not shored, sheete d, braced, or otherwise supported. The trench was dug in sandy soil with some mi ca content. The pipe had been lowered into the trench and Employee #1 was about to hook up two sections when the south wall caved in. Employee #1 was in a kneel ing position and was covered with dirt to about his shoulders. He sustained a se vere bruise to his knee.

Victim

  1. #1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 44 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    15
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    557
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    13
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    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.