OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14454672
ALTON RENDERING WORKS, INC.
ALTON, IA·
Event description
Three employees overcome by gas in sewer line
Investigation abstract
Employees #1 and #2 were trying to open a clogged sewer line. Employee #1 descen ssist Employee #1, but to no avail. He climbed out to get a line to take to Empl oyee #1, went down again, and felt himself passing out. He exited the manhole an d fell on the ground, unconscious. Employee #3 arrived and went down to help Emp loyee #1. He, too, had problems and tried to climb out, but lost consciousness a nd fell back into the hole. A long metal rod with a hook on one end was used to catch the belts of Employees #1 and #3 and pull them out. Both were hospitalized . ded a ladder to the bottom of a 10 ft deep manhole leading to the sewer line, ca rrying a tape to use to break through the clog. He had no success after about 10 minutes, so he climbed back out and he and Employee #2 adjusted the tape to mak e it more efficient. Employee #1 then climbed back down and after 2 or 3 minutes told Employee #2 that he was partially through but wanted to get a better openi ng. A minute later he said that he had done it, but that he had to get out of th e manhole. He climbed the ladder until his head surfaced. He took a breath, then collapsed back into the manhole. Employee #2 called for help and went down to a
Victims (3)
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 43 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 19
- Environmental factor
- 9
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 39 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 19
- Environmental factor
- 9
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#3 Hospitalized Age 27 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 19
- Environmental factor
- 9
- Task assigned
- 2
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.