104,543Records 70,659Employers 84,666Hospitalizations 27,563Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-09-30
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14447726

ASPHYXIATED,SHORING,CAVE-IN,LEG,TRENCH,SLOPING

Event
ASPHYXIATED,SHORING,CAVE-IN,LEG,TRENCH,SLOPING
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14447726
Report ID
552700

Event description

TRENCH CAVE IN

Investigation abstract

ON APRIL 3, 1984 AT APPROXIMATELY 2 PM, EMPLOYEES #1 AND #2 WERE PREPARING TO LA Y 4" PVC SEWER PIPE IN A TRENCH THAT WAS ABOUT 30' LONG, 4' WIDE, AND 8' DEEP. T HE TRENCH WALLS WERE ALMOST VERTICIAL, WITH NO SHORING, AND THE SPOIL BANK WAS R ETAINED RIGHT TO THE EDGE OF THE NORTH WALL. WHILE THE EMPLOYEES WERE IN THE TRE NCH TRYING TO LOCATE THE SEWER STUB-UP FROM THE STREET, THE NORTH WALL OF THE TR ENCH CAVED-IN AND COVERED BOTH MEN. EMPLOYEE #1 DIED OF ASPHYXIA THORACIC COMPRE SSION. EMPLOYEE #2 WAS RESCUED, SUFFERING FROM PULLED OR STRAINED MUSCLES IN HIS RIGHT LEG.

Victims (3)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 24 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    29
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    13
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 23 M

    Nature of injury
    20
    Part of body
    16
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    13
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #981 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0

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.