OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14495543

HEAD,MUD PUMP,SAFETY RELIEF VALVE,DRILLING MUD,OIL WELL DRILLING,HIGH PRESSURE,FACE

1984-10-27T00:00:00

Event: HEAD,MUD PUMP,SAFETY RELIEF VALVE,DRILLING MUD,OIL WELL DRILLING,HIGH PRESSURE,FACE
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 14495543
Report ID: 627700

Event description

STRUCK IN THE FACE BY PRESSURIZED DRILLING MUD

Investigation abstract

THE DRILLING CREW HAD REPLACED THE HEAD LINERS AND WAS CHECKING THE MUD PUMPS. O NE EMPLOYEE WAS OPERATING THE ENGINE SUPPLYING POWER TO THE MUD PUMP. ANOTHER EM PLOYEE WAS STANDING FACING THE MUD PUMP PRESSURE GUAGE. EMPLOYEE #1 WALKED OVER TO THE SUPPLY VALVE AND REMOVED THE VALVE WHEEL, WALKED AROUND TO THE FRONT END OF THE MUD PUMP, PLACED THE WHEEL ON THE DISCHARGE VALVE AND STARTED CLOSING IT. A FEW SECONDS PASSED. THE SAFETY DISCHARGE VALVE OPENED WITH EMPLOYEE #1 STANDI NG IN FRONT OF IT. THE DRILLING MUD DISCHARGED THROUGH THE RELIEF PIPE, STRICKIN G EMPLOYEE #1 IN THE FACE WITH APPROXIMATELY 1,000 POUND PSI DRILLING MUD.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 52 M

Nature of injury
6

Part of body
13

Event type
1

Source
36

Occupation code
999

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
15

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.