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 #14490999

CHEST,UNCONSCIOUSNESS,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,CRUSHED,SHORING,STRUCK BY,SLOPING,CAVE-IN

Event
CHEST,UNCONSCIOUSNESS,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,CRUSHED,SHORING,STRUCK BY,SLOPING,CAVE-IN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14490999
Report ID
215800

Event description

CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYEE TRAPPED IN TRENCH CAVE-IN

Investigation abstract

TWO EMPLOYEES WERE INSTALLING A CELLAR DRAIN IN A TRENCH WHICH VARIED IN DEPTH F ROM 5 FEET, 3 INCHES TO 6 FEET. THE TRENCH WAS NOT SLOPED OR SHORED. A FROZEN CH UNK OF SOIL BROKE OFF FROM ONE SIDE OF THE TRENCH AND STRUCK EMPLOYEE #1 IN THE CHEST, PINNING HIM AGAINST THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRENCH. THE WEIGHT OF THE CHUNK OF SOIL ON THE EMPLOYEE'S CHEST PREVENTED HIM FROM BREATHING AND HE LOST CONSCI OUSNESS. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS REVIVED BY EMERGENCY PERSONNEL AND SUFFERED NO APPARENT LASTING INJURIES.

Victim

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 53 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    4
    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.