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 #14490395

BLASTING,CLEANING,STRUCK BY,FALLING OBJECT

Event
BLASTING,CLEANING,STRUCK BY,FALLING OBJECT
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14490395
Report ID
215800

Event description

EMPLOYEE KILLED BY FALLING CHUNK OF AMMONIUM SULFATE

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 AND ANOTHER EMPLOYEE WERE ATTEMPTING TO BLAST APART A 22 FOOT HIGH P ILE OF SOLIDIFIED AMMONIUM SULFATE. THE OBSERVER WATCHED WHILE EMPLOYEE #1 DRILL ED A HORIZONTAL HOLE 6 FEET DEEP INTO THE PILE. THE DRILL HOLE WAS 10 FEET ABOVE FLOOR LEVEL. EMPLOYEE #1 LOADED THE HOLE WITH ONE STICK OF 40% NITROGLYCERIN DY NAMITE WITH AN ELECTRIC BLASTING CAP INSERTED INTO IT. EMPLOYEE #1 THEN PACKED T HE HOLE. HE WAS CONNECTING A LEAD CORD TO EXTEND THE LENGTH OF THE BLASTING CAP' S LEG WIRES (SO THE BLAST COULD BE SET OFF OUTSIDE THE DOORWAY OF THE BIN) WHEN A CHUNK OF SOLIDIFIED MATERIAL FELL ON HIM. HE WAS KILLED.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 27 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    1
    Event type
    1
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    10
    Environmental factor
    6
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    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.