OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14342315
HEAD,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,ISOPROPANOL,WORK RULES,DRUM,TORCH,EXPLOSION,STRUCK BY,UNTRAINED
Event description
EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN 55 GALLON DRUM HE WAS CUTTING BLEW UP
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE # 1, AN UNSKILLED HELPER IN AN ORNAMENTAL IRON SHOP, WAS TOLD TO CLEAN BEEN CUTTING IN THE CENTER AREA. RATHER, HE WOULD HAVE CUT AT THE RIM.) EMPLOYEE #1 SUSTAINED FATAL HEAD INJURIES WHEN THE TOP OF THE DRUM HIT HIM IN THE FACE A FTER AN EXPLOSION OCCURRED. THERE WERE NO OTHER EMPLOYEES IN THE SHOP AREA WHEN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED. THE SHOP AND PLACE TRASH OUTSIDE, IN 55 GALLON DRUMS. THERE WERE PLENTY OF EMPTY DRUMS AVAILABLE IN WHICH TO PLACE THE TRASH, BUT, FOR SOME REASON, THE EMPLOYEE DECIDED TO BURN A HOLE IN THE TOP CENTER OF A 55 GALLON DRUM WHICH HAD PREVIOUS LY CONTAINED ISOPROPANOL. THE LABEL ON THE DRUM READ: "ISOPROPANOL 99-UNION CARB IDE". THE TORCH AND REGULATORS WERE MADE BY VICTOR. THE MODEL NUMBER WAS 315 AND THE SERIAL NUMBER WAS 732988. OXYGEN AND ACETYLENE GASES WERE BEING USED. EMPLO YEE #1 APPARENTLY WAS TRYING TO LEARN HOW TO CUT WITH THE TORCH. (IF HE HAD KNOW N HOW TO USE THE TORCH, AND WAS ATTEMPTING TO REMOVE THE TOP, HE WOULD NOT HAVE
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 55 M
- Nature of injury
- 7
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 7
- Occupation code
- 999
- 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.