Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025
105,991Records 70,589Employers 85,836Hospitalizations 27,959Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-11-30

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14273254

BATH IRON WORKS

Event
HEAD, SHIPYARD, UNSECURED, PINNED, WORK RULES, SHIP, SCAFFOLD
NAICS
000000
Inspection type
Accident-driven
Activity number
#103392239
Employer profile
BATH IRON WORKS
Summary number
14273254
Report ID
111100

Event description

Employee killed when head pinned to ship by scaffold

Investigation abstract

A company's change in past practices in supporting a covered scaffold hanging ov er the side of a ship resulted in the supporting brackets being removed in error . Employee #1, who was working within the scaffold, had to reach between the edg e of the scaffold and the side of the ship to loosen a clamp. When he did, the 6 ,000 lb scaffold swung into the side of the ship and pinned Employee 1's head. E mployee #1 died the following day, March 8, 1989.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 20 Male

    Nature of injury
    Amputation (1)
    Part of body
    HEAD (13)
    Accident type
    CAUGHT IN OR BETWEEN (2)
    Source of injury
    WORKING SURFACE (42)
    Occupation
    Occupation not reported (999)
    Human factor
    SAFETY DEVICES REMOVED/INOPER. (9)
    Environmental factor
    SQUEEZE POINT ACTION (4)
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    Task assigned
    Task regularly assigned (1)

Labels are OSHA's own, from the code dictionary published with the accident-investigation file. The raw code is shown beside each one so this page can be reconciled against OSHA's bulk data. OSHA notes that nature of injury, part of body, source of injury and accident type in this file are not coded to the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System, and that the occupation titles are not standardised — so these values are not directly comparable with the OIICS-coded severe injury reports.