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 #14498497

CLOTHING,REPAIR,ROTATING SHAFT,WORK RULES,ENTANGLED,DRIVE SHAFT,UNIVERSAL JOINT

Event
CLOTHING,REPAIR,ROTATING SHAFT,WORK RULES,ENTANGLED,DRIVE SHAFT,UNIVERSAL JOINT
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14498497
Report ID
626600

Event description

EMPLOYEE ENTANGLED IN UNIVERSAL JOINT OF TRUCK DRIVE SHAFT

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 WAS TRYING TO ADJUST OR REPAIR A SPEEDOMETER CABLE ON A 1981 FORD TR ACTOR TRUCK 9000, SERIAL NUMBER 4110. HE JACKED UP ONE OF THE BACK WHEELS SO THA T THE DRIVESHAFT COULD BE FREELY ROTATED (AND THE SPEEDOMETER CABLE AS WELL) WIT HOUT MOVING THE TRUCK. AT SOME POINT THE SLEEVE OF HIS JACKET WAS CAUGHT BY THE UNIVERSAL JOINT. THE JACKET BECAME ENTANGLED, DRAWING EMPLOYEE #1 INTO THE DRIVE SHAFT. SINCE THE DRIVE SHAFT WAS BEING DRIVEN BY THE FULL TORQUE OF THE TRUCK'S ENGINE, IT CONTINUED TO ROTATE, INFLICTING MULTIPLE FATAL INJURIES ON EMPLOYEE #1.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 32 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    2
    Source
    29
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    4
    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.