OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14397582
FELL ASLEEP,GUARDRAIL,SPEEDING,DRIVER,COLLISION,SKULL,OVERTURN
Event description
Test driver killed after falling asleep at wheel
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was driving an Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais on a 5 mile long oval test track, testing tire wear at sustained high speeds. While negotiating a curve at 90 mph he drove off the track into a standard highway guardrail. The car flipped sideways along the metal rail, causing Employee #1 to strike against the steeri ng wheel, doors, and windshield. He sustained multiple broken bones, internal is and internal injuries, and the top of his skull was torn off. Employee #1 was k illed. Witnesses saw no sign of braking or swerving. Inspection evidence and sta tements indicate that Employee #1 fell asleep at the wheel.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 31 F
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 8
- Environmental factor
- 18
- 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.