105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14307185

SUFFOCATED,CONSTRUCTION,TORSO,TRENCH,CAVE-IN,BACKHOE

Event
SUFFOCATED,CONSTRUCTION,TORSO,TRENCH,CAVE-IN,BACKHOE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14307185
Report ID
213900

Event description

EMPLOYEE SUFFOCATED IN TRENCH CAVE-IN

Investigation abstract

Employee #1 and Employee #2 were working in a trench approximately 7 feet 6 inch es deep setting a 15 inch storm drain pipe when a small cave-in occurred. The tw o men were exiting the trench when a second, larger cave-in occurred. Employee # 1 was completely buried and Employee #2 was buried up to his chin. The owner of the company who was also the backhoe operator freed Employee #2. Both men then p roceeded to free Employee #1. Afterwards they administered cardiopulmonary resus citation until help arrived. Employee #1 was pronounced dead at Burdette Tomblin Hospital in Cape May Courthouse, New Jersey.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 21 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    4
    Environmental factor
    4
    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.