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 #14387625

CHEST,HEART,FRACTURE,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,CAVE-IN

Event
CHEST,HEART,FRACTURE,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,CAVE-IN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14387625
Report ID
524200

Event description

EMPLOYEE KILLED IN TRENCH CAVE-IN

Investigation abstract

THE COMPANY WAS INSTALLING A CAST IRON WATER LINE WHEN ONE OF THE TRENCH WALLS C AVED IN ON EMPLOYEE #1. THE IMPACT OF THE MOVING SOIL THREW EMPLOYEE #1 AGAINST HIS HAND SHOVEL. THE SHOVEL HANDLE FRACTURED BONES IN HIS CHEST, IN TURN CAUSING DAMAGE TO HIS HEART. THE TRENCH WAS 7 1/2 FEET DEEP AND 5 FEET WIDE, WITH VERTI CAL WALLS. PENETROMETER AND TORVANE TESTS DEMONSTRATED THAT THE SOIL WAS SOFT AN D UNSTABLE. NO SHORING WAS USED.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 26 M

    Nature of injury
    18
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    1
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    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.