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 #14330690

FRONT END LOADER,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,UNSTABLE SOIL,BURIED,CAVE-IN,INATTENTION

Event
FRONT END LOADER,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,UNSTABLE SOIL,BURIED,CAVE-IN,INATTENTION
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14330690
Report ID
317700

Event description

Employee killed, two injured in trench cave-in

Investigation abstract

Employees #1 through #3 were in a newly dug trench that measured approximately 2 talized. 5 ft long, 6 ft wide, and 13 ft deep, attempting to set a newly laid 8 in. wide and 13 ft long PVC sewer pipe. The bed was not right and the PVC pipe had to be moved so that three bucketsful of crushed stone, each weighing approximately 1 t on, could be spread along the pipe's length. A Caterpillar tracked front end loa der was to dump the crushed stone, and the employees were to spread it out under the pipe. The loader moved three times, grinding the top left side of the trenc h each time. The left side of the trench caved in, covering all three employees. Employee #1 was killed. Employees #2 and #3 were injured. Employee #3 was hospi

Victims (3)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 50 M

    Nature of injury
    6
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    12
    Task assigned
    2
  2. #2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 55 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    1
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    13
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #3 Hospitalized Age 45 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    1
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    13
    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.