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 #14487185

ELECTRICAL,FIRE,E PTD,EXPLOSION,ELEC UTILITY WORK,BACKHOE,UNDRGRD POWER LINE

Event
ELECTRICAL,FIRE,E PTD,EXPLOSION,ELEC UTILITY WORK,BACKHOE,UNDRGRD POWER LINE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14487185
Report ID
215600

Event description

ELECTRICAL EXPLOSION - BACKHOE OPERATION NEAR UNDERGRND LINE

Investigation abstract

AN EMPLOYEE OF AN ELECTRIC UTILITY WAS ACTING AS A GUIDE FOR A BACKHOE OPERATOR. THE BACKHOE OPERATOR WAS EXCAVATING TO UNCOVER AN ELECTRICAL DUCT BANK. DURING THE EXCAVATION AN EXPLOSION OCCURRED CAUSING THE RUPTURE OF A GAS MAIN. THE ESCA PING GAS IGNITED, AND THE EMPLOYEE WAS BURNED TO DEATH IN THE FIRE. THE BACKHOE OPERATOR WAS NOT REPORTED TO BE INJURED.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 62 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    14
    Source
    16
    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.