OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14397269
PINNED,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,RUPTURE,VALVE,DROWN,COMMUNICATION,WATER
Event description
Employee drowns when pinned in flooded trench
Investigation abstract
Employee #1, a laborer, and other employees of the Haegelin Construction Company were in a trench when a worker for the City of Austin turned on the water to pr essure-test the line. He failed to notify the construction workers. A reducer va lve broke loose from the main water line, causing the trench to flood. The force of the rushing water shoved a partly connected 500 lb metal valve against Emplo yee #1, pinning him in the trench as it filled with water. Employee #1 drowned. He was first hired by the company on November 5, 1985, and had three years of ex perience at the time of the accident.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 49 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 5
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 41
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Hazardous substance
- 8880
- 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.