105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14487144

ASPHYXIATED,SHORING,CAVE-IN,BACKHOE,COLLAPSE,TRENCH,TRENCH DIGGER

Event
ASPHYXIATED,SHORING,CAVE-IN,BACKHOE,COLLAPSE,TRENCH,TRENCH DIGGER
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14487144
Report ID
215600

Event description

EMPLOYEE ASPHYXIATED IN TRENCH COLLAPSE

Investigation abstract

A sewer contractor opened a public street to connect a sewer from a residential multi-story building to the main sewer line 10 ft under the street. The foreman operating a backhoe dug a trench 3-ft-wide by 9-ft-long by 8-ft-deep before stop ping to install a shoring system. Employee #1 was in the process of shaping up t he trench sides when standing on a 12 ft ladder, he dropped his shovel into the trench. The wall collapsed trapping Employee #1 under the loose soil as he bent over to pickup the shovel, and was asphyxiated.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 30 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #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.