OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14422430
ASPHYXIATED,FLOWING MATERIAL,BURIED,GRAIN BIN
Event description
Employee dies of suffocation when buried in grain
Investigation abstract
Employees #1 and #2 were cleaning out a flat grain storage building containing m y EMS personnel to revive Employee #1 failed. Weather at the time of the acciden t was cool and dry. Milo was piled approximately 10 to 14 feet high in the area where the employees were working. They were standing on milo that ranged from 18 inches to 3 feet deep. ilo. They were using shovels to empty the grain into the discharge ports that sp illed to an underground enclosed auger conveyor. As they worked, the grain flow slowed down. Assuming that a clod of milo was blocking the discharge port, the e mployees used a 1 in. by 4 in. piece of lumber to break loose the clod by poking the lumber in and out of the discharge port. Apparently, this action caused the port to open wider than it was originally set. The milo began to flow at an inc reased rate into the discharge port, burying Employee #2 up to his armpits in mi lo, and sweeping Employee #1 off his feet and completely burying him. Attempts b
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 59 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 18
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 52 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- 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.