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 #14388607

FURNACE,HEAD,REMOTE CONTROL,WORK RULES,LOCKOUT,CRUSHED,MACHINE--MISC

Event
FURNACE,HEAD,REMOTE CONTROL,WORK RULES,LOCKOUT,CRUSHED,MACHINE--MISC
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14388607
Report ID
524700

Event description

EMPLOYEE'S HEAD CRUSHED BY AUTOMATICALLY CLOSING FURNACE LID

Investigation abstract

ON JUNE 1, 1987, THE PPG COMPANY WAS HOLDING A TRAINING SESSION FOR TECHNOGLASS MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL. THEY WERE TRAINING ON A WINDSHIELD FURNACE THAT PPG WAS I N THE PROCESS OF INSTALLING. WHILE THE MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL WERE LEARNING THE C OMPUTER FUNCTIONS OF THE MACHINE, THE FURNACE WAS PLACED IN AN OPERATIONAL STATU S. REMOTE SWITCHES LOCATED ON THE FURNACE LINE WERE APPARENTLY IN THE "DOWN" POS ITION, WITH THE LIDS PRESENTLY IN THE "UP" POSITION. THE GROUP WAS EXAMINING THE FURNACE LID HEATING ELEMENTS WHEN THE COMPUTER RESPONDED TO THE REMOTE SWITCHES ' "DOWN" COMMAND. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS CAUGHT BETWEEN THE LOWERING FURNACE LID #2 AND THE CONVEYOR ROLLERS. HE DIED OF A CRUSHING HEAD INJURY.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 22 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    2
    Source
    26
    Occupation code
    519
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    4
    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.