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 #14488837

CHEST,WORK RULES,INTERLOCK,CRUSHED,ELEVATOR,INATTENTION

Event
CHEST,WORK RULES,INTERLOCK,CRUSHED,ELEVATOR,INATTENTION
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14488837
Report ID
215000

Event description

EMPLOYEE CRUSHED IN SIDEWALK ELEVATOR ACCIDENT

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1, THE COMPANY PRESIDENT AND FACTORY REP, WAS ASSISTING THE TRUCK DRIV EMPLOYEE #1 WAS PULLED INTO THE ELEVATOR SHAFT HEAD FIRST. HIS CHEST WAS CRUSHE D BETWEEN THE OVERHEAD GUIDE RAIL FOR THE FOLDING GATE AND THE ANGLE IRON FOR TH E SHAFT OPENING. HE DIED OF MASSIVE INTERNAL INJURIES. ER IN LOADING KITCHEN CABINETS ONTO A SIDEWALK FREIGHT ELEVATOR. THE SAFETY INTE RLOCK FOR THE ELEVATOR'S FOLDING GATES HAD BEEN TAPED IN A BYPASS POSITION, ALLO WING THE ELEVATOR TO DESCEND WITH THE GATE OPEN. THE ELEVATOR'S CAB WAS OVERLOAD ED WITH CABINETS, WEDGING THE FOLDING GATE (IN A CLOSED OR COMPACT CONDITION) AG AINST THE FRONT WALL OF THE SHAFT. THIS PREVENTED THE ELEVATOR FROM DESCENDING S O THAT, WHEN THE ELEVATOR OPERATOR PRESSED THE "DOWN" BUTTON, THE ELEVATOR CABLE WAS RELEASED FROM THE CABLE DRUM. EMPLOYEE #1 LEANED INTO THE ELEVATOR TO REMOV E SOME CABINETS. REMOVING THE CABINETS FREED THE GATE, ALLOWING THE CAB TO DROP.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 45 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    2
    Source
    24
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    8
    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.