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 #14397012

HEAD,TUNNEL,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,LOCOMOTIVE,LIGHTING,PIPE,STRUCK BY,UNTRAINED

Event
HEAD,TUNNEL,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,LOCOMOTIVE,LIGHTING,PIPE,STRUCK BY,UNTRAINED
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14397012
Report ID
625400

Event description

EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN HE DROVE LOCOMOTIVE INTO OVERHEAD PIPE

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 WAS HIRED AS AN INEXPERIENCED TUNNEL CONSTRUCTION LABORER ON FEBRUAR ENT. Y 25, 1987. HE HAD RECENTLY BEEN ASSIGNED THE JOB OF ACTING ASSISTANT FOREMAN. A T ABOUT MIDNIGHT ON NOVEMBER 14, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS DRIVING A LOCOMOTIVE, WIT H A TWO MAN CLEANUP CREW ABOARD, THROUGH A TUNNEL. THE TUNNEL WAS LIGHTED, BUT T HE LOCOMOTIVE HAD NO LIGHTS AND A RECENTLY INSTALLED "SLICK LINE" (A 7 INCH OUTS IDE DIAMETER CONCRETE PIPE), WHICH PROJECTED ABOUT 41 INCHES INTO THE 10 FOOT DI AMETER TUNNEL, WAS NOT ILLUMINATED. AS THE TRAIN PASSED BENEATH THE "SLICK LINE" EMPLOYEE #1'S HEAD HIT THE LINE. HE WAS KILLED. THE EMPLOYEE HAD NOT BEEN INSTR UCTED TO DRIVE THE LOCOMOTIVE, EITHER BY HIS FOREMAN OR THE CONCRETE SUPERINTEND

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 33 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    6
    Source
    8
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    13
    Hazardous substance
    8390
    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.