OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14296479
FRACTURE,REGULATOR VALVE,CYLINDER,COMPRESSED GAS,EXPLOSION,VALVE,FACE,CONTUSION
Event description
OXYGEN TANK REGULATOR EXPLODED IN EMPLOYEE'S FACE
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS ASSISTING ANOTHER EMPLOYEE IN THE REMOVAL OF A COLUMN CAN. (A 1 1/2 BY 8 INCH BOLT WAS BENT.) HE WENT TO THE COMPRESSED GAS CYLINDERS, TURNED ON THE ACETYLENE, THEN CRACKED THE OXYGEN VALVE. THE REGULATOR PORTION OF THE GUAG ES EXPLODED IN HIS FACE, CAUSING FACIAL BONE FRACTURES, DAMAGED TEETH, IMPAIRED VISION AND HEARING, CONTUSIONS TO THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE FACE AND 3 SEVERE LACERA TIONS TO THE LEFT SIDE OF THE FACE. THE EQUIPMENT WAS A SMITH OXYGEN REGULATOR, SERIAL NUMBER H-1710-540. ALTHOUGH IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE TO DETERMINE THE EXACT CA USE OF THE ACCIDENT, IT WAS NOTED THAT THE OXYGEN CYLINDER WAS NOT SECURED IN AN UPRIGHT POSITION, BUT WAS LYING ON THE GROUND.
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 33 M
- Nature of injury
- 7
- Part of body
- 9
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 567
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Task assigned
- 2
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.