OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14388870
HEAD,MAINTENANCE,SHOULDER,STRUCK AGAINST,FALL,FLOOR OPENING,INATTENTION
Event description
Employee killed in fall through floor opening
Investigation abstract
On February 17, 1988, maintenance workers were modifying a cooling tower platfor m preparing for the installation of a new cooling unit. Removal of the old unit left floor openings. Maintenance workers were preparing to enlarge the opening f or the larger new unit. Employee #1 was explaining to three other workers which areas needed to be changed to accommodate the new unit. When he turned, he stepp ed into a 22 in. by 37 in. floor hole. As he went through the opening, he partia lly caught himself, altering his fall path from straight down to falling at an a ngle. His feet caught the top of a chain link fence gate, causing his head and s houlders to strike the roadway first. Employee #1 died of his injuries.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 37 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 42
- Occupation code
- 503
- Human factor
- 20
- Environmental factor
- 5
- 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.