OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14468672

GRINDER,THROAT,DISINTEGRATED,MOUTH,WORK RULES,STRUCK BY,FLYING OBJECT,FACE,GRINDING WHEEL,UNGUARDED

1988-01-19T12:30:00

Event: GRINDER,THROAT,DISINTEGRATED,MOUTH,WORK RULES,STRUCK BY,FLYING OBJECT,FACE,GRINDING WHEEL,UNGUARDED
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 14468672
Report ID: 317530

Event description

EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN STRUCK BY PIECES OF GRINDING WHEEL

Investigation abstract

AT APPROXIMATELY 12:30 PM ON JANUARY 19, 1988, EMPLOYEE #1 RETURNED FROM BREAK T PPROVED FACE SHIELD AND ENTERING EMPLOYEE #1'S MOUTH AND THROAT. HE WAS KILLED. O CONTINUE GRINDING SMALL STEEL CASTINGS. THE CASTINGS WERE HELD IN PLACE BY A V ISE ON THE WAIST HIGH WORK BENCH. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS USING A CHICAGO PNEUMATIC RIGH T ANGLE PORTABLE AIR GRINDER. IT WAS RATED AT 4500 RPM WITH A POSTED LIMIT ON TH E ID PLATE OF A SIX INCH ORGANIC WHEEL OR A FIVE INCH VITRIFIED WHEEL. THE GRIND ER WAS EQUIPPED WITH A SA1T TYPE 27 METAL WHEEL (MODEL A24R) RATED AT 6600 RPM, SIZE 9 BY 1/4 BY 8 INCHES. THE GRINDER WHEEL WAS NOT GUARDED DESPITE CAUTION WAR NINGS ON THE WHEEL AND PORTABLE GRINDER. THE WHEEL WAS ACCIDENTALLY BROKEN DURIN G USE. FLYING FRAGMENTS CAME BACK AT THE OPERATOR, SHATTERING AND PIERCING THE A

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 23 M

Nature of injury
1

Part of body
20

Event type
1

Source
21

Occupation code
999

Human factor
9

Environmental factor
5

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.