OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14301410
TERMINAL EFFECTS RESEARCH AGENCY
SOCORRO, NM·
Event description
Two killed in ordnance explosion at testing facility
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 and #2 were on an assigned task at a remote worksite, removing the m ace, and died in surgery a few hours later. echanisms from M42 and M46 grenades. This procedure involved placing the grenade s into a remote fuse removal device and observing the defusing action with a mir ror from the safety of a concrete personnel shelter. The defusing cycle apparent ly left one grenade in an armed, partially defused condition. When both employee s emerged from the shelter Employee #1 handled the armed grenade, while Employee #2 stood a few feet away. The grenade detonated and fragmented, striking both e mployees. Employee #1 died immediately of extensive multiple injuries to the upp er left torso. Employee #2 suffered critical puncture injuries to the head and f
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 53 M
- Nature of injury
- 18
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 235
- Human factor
- 11
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Hazardous substance
- 8880
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Fatality Age 19 M
- Nature of injury
- 18
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 889
- Human factor
- 11
- Environmental factor
- 5
- 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.