OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14496525
OXYGEN DEFICIENCY,ASPHYXIATED,REPAIR,LIFELINE,WORK RULES,INHALATION,FALL,OVEREXPOSURE,TANK,RESPIRATOR
Event description
Two employees killed by lack of oxygen in chicken parts tank
Investigation abstract
Employee #1, the lead man, placed a ladder into an 8 ft in diameter by 16 ft 9 i n. deep tank that contained scrap chicken parts to be cooked at a rendering plan t. He intended to service a piece of metal that had broken from the agitator. On his third attempt to reach the metal piece, and after retrieving a respirator, he apparently was overcome by fumes or lack of oxygen, and fell into the approxi mately 4 ft 3 in. deep mix of chicken parts. Employee #2 attempted to rescue Emp loyee #1, but he was also overcome and fell into the tank. A coworker who had re mained on the floor ran to get help. Employees #1 and #2 died from lack of oxyge n within the tank.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 50 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 40
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 9
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#2 Fatality Age 56 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 40
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 9
- 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.