OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14412845
WALL,DEMOLITION,COLLAPSE,UNSECURED,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,CRUSHED,STRUCK BY,INATTENTION
Event description
BRICK WALL BEING DEMOLISHED FELL ON EMPLOYEES
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEES #1 AND #2 WERE TWO OF FOUR EMPLOYEES ASSIGNED TO DEMOLISH A SECTION OF HEM. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS KILLED AND EMPLOYEE #2 HOSPITALIZED WITH INJURIES. THE CONT RACTOR HAD INSTALLED A NEW WALL, MADE OF CINDER BLOCKS, 5 FEET FROM THE WALL BEI NG TORN DOWN. THE NEW WALL WAS ALSO 16 FEET HIGH. AT VARIOUS TIMES EMPLOYEES WER E REQUIRED TO WORK BETWEEN THE WALLS. BRICK WALL. THE WALL MEASURED 15 FEET WIDE (INCLUDING A DOUBLE WINDOW 11 FEET W IDE), 16 FEET HIGH AND THREE BRICKS THICK. THE EMPLOYEES STARTED WORK ON THE WAL L AT ABOUT 2 PM ON OCTOBER 6, 1986. THEY BEGAN USING SLEDGE HAMMERS AND AN AIR J ACKHAMMER TO REMOVE THE BRICKS SURROUNDING THE DOUBLE WINDOW. HOWEVER, THEY WERE UNABLE TO FINISH REMOVING THE DOUBLE WINDOW THAT DAY. AT 7 AM THE NEXT DAY, THE SAME EMPLOYEES CONTINUED TO REMOVE BRICKS FROM AROUND THE WINDOW. AFTER ABOUT 3 0 MINUTES, ANOTHER EMPLOYEE NOTICED THE SECTION OF WALL BEGIN TO SWAY. HEWARNED EMPLOYEES #1 AND #2, BUT, BEFORE THEY COULD GET AWAY FROM THE WALL, IT FELL ON T
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 21 M
- Nature of injury
- 6
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 8
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 17
- Environmental factor
- 6
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 24 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 16
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 8
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 17
- Environmental factor
- 6
- 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.