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 #14379671

WORK RULES,CRUSHED,CRANE,INATTENTION

Event
WORK RULES,CRUSHED,CRANE,INATTENTION
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14379671
Report ID
522000

Event description

EMPLOYEE CRUSHED BY SCRAP BIN LIFTING ARM

Investigation abstract

A CRANE OPERATOR LIFTED A SCRAP BIN, USING A PENDANT CONTROLLED CRANE, AS ANOTHE STOP TABS. NOT REALIZING THAT THE LIFTING ARM WAS UNLATCHED, EMPLOYEE #1 BANDED UP THE SCRAP BALLS IN THE PIT. THE FIRST BALL WAS PLACED ON THE SEMI-TRAILER FO R SCRAP. THE SECOND BALL WOULD NOT CLEAR THE SIDE OF THE TRAILER WITHOUT TRIPPIN G THE UPPER LIMIT SWITCH. THE CRANE OPERATOR ASKED EMPLOYEE #1 TO HELP RE-HOOK T O THE SCRAP BIN SO THEY COULD REMOVE THE SECOND SCRAP BALL BY PLACING IT IN THE BIN. WHEN EMPLOYEE #1 CLIMBED ONTO THE SCRAP BIN HE GRABBED THE LIFTING ARM, CAU SING IT TO TOPPLE. THE LIFTING ARM KNOCKED EMPLOYEE #1 TO THE SIDE, THEN FELL ON TO HIM. HE WAS CRUSHED TO DEATH. R EMPLOYEE (EMPLOYEE #1) EJECTED 2 MORE METAL SCRAP BALLS FROM THE STEEL SLITTIN G OPERATION INTO THE PIT LEFT BY THE REMOVAL OF THE SCRAP BIN. THE CRANE OPERATO R BEGAN TO SET DOWN THE BIN, AND ACTUALLY HAD IT ON THE GROUND, WHEN THE CRANE B ROKE DOWN. AFTER THE CRANE WAS REPAIRED THE MAINTENANCE MAN TRIED IT OUT BY LIFT ING AND LOWERING IT. HE FINALLY LOWERED THE SCRAP ONTO THE FLOOR. SEVERAL MINUTE S LATER EMPLOYEE #1 UNHOOKED THE CRANE FROM THE BIN SO THEY COULD USE IT (THE CR ANE) TO GET THE OTHER TWO SCRAP BALLS FROM THE PIT. WHEN EMPLOYEE #1 UNHOOKED TH E CRANE HE LEFT THE LIFTING ARM UNLATCHED AND STANDING, RESTING AGAINST THE BACK

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 34 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    1
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    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.