OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14342125
UNSECURED,DRILL PIPE,OIL WELL DRILLING,PIPE,STRUCK BY,ELEVATOR,FALLING OBJECT
Event description
STRUCK BY FALLING DRILL PIPE
Investigation abstract
THE NIGHT SHIFT CREW HAD BEEN PULLING 40 FOOT JOINTS OF SEVEN INCH DRILL PIPE. F IPPED ACCIDENTLY BY SNAGGING ON SOME RIGGING USED TO SUSPEND THE KELLY FROM THE DERRICK FRAME. POOR LIGHTING IN THE UPPER RIGGING AREAS MAY HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ACCIDENT. THE ACCIDENT MAY HAVE BEEN AVOIDED BY PROVIDING A POSITIVE LOCKIN G DEVICE, WHICH WOULD NOT HAVE PERMITTED THE ACCIDENTAL TRIPPING OF THE DOOR LAT CH. OUR JOINTS HAD BEEN PULLED. THE FIFTH JOINT, IN A "WILSON" ELEVATOR, HAD BEEN RA ISED CLEAR OF THE PLATFORM. AS THE OPERATOR SLOWLY LOWERED THE PIPE, TWO LABORER S SWUNG THE PIPE AWAY FROM THE DERRICK AND ONTO THE PIPE MACHINE, FOR TRANSFER T O THE PIPE RACK. THE ELEVATOR DOOR BECAME UNLATCHED, ALLOWING THE PIPE TO FALL. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS STRUCK AND KILLED BY THE FALLING PIPE. THE CREW WAS USING THE SA ME PROCEDURE THAT THEY HAD USED MANY TIMES BEFORE. REPORTEDLY, THE ELEVATOR DOOR HAD BEEN PROPERLY CLOSED AND THE SPRING LOADED LATCH HAD BEEN CHECKED TO ASSURE THAT IT WAS PROPERLY SECURED. CREW MEMBERS SURMISE THAT THE LATCH HANDLE WAS TR
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 28 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 24
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 11
- Environmental factor
- 6
- 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.