OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14498851

ROTATING SHAFT,ELECTRICIAN,CONSTRUCTION,LOCKOUT,INEXPERIENCE,LANYARD,ENTANGLED,UNGUARDED

1986-07-28T00:00:00

Event: ROTATING SHAFT,ELECTRICIAN,CONSTRUCTION,LOCKOUT,INEXPERIENCE,LANYARD,ENTANGLED,UNGUARDED
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 14498851
Report ID: 626600

Event description

CAUGHT BY ROTATING SHAFT

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1, AN ELECTRICIANS HELPER, WAS ON HIS FIRST DAY ON THE JOB. THE ELECTR TE FOUNDATIONS USED TO SUPPORT FALK GEAR BOXES AT THIS SITE. THESE FALK GEARS HA VE A SIX INCH METAL SHAFT WITH A COLLAR, APPROXIMATELY 6 FEET, 6 1/2 INCHES ABOV E THE CONCRETE FLOOR. EMPLOYEE #1 AND HIS CO-WORKER WERE WORKING AROUND AND OVER THESE UNGUARDED FALK GEAR SHAFTS. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS EQUIPPED WITH THE SAFETY EQUI PMENT WHICH WAS REQUIRED BY HIS EMPLOYER (HARD HAT, SAFETY BELT, SAFETY GLASSES) . BOTH ENDS OF HIS SAFETY BELT LANYARD WERE ATTACHED TO THE D-RING, LEAVING A LO OP HANGING ABOUT DOWN TO HIS KNEES. AS HE WAS ATTEMPTING TO POSITION HIMSELF TO INSTALL A 3/4 INCH METAL CONDUIT IN THE OVERHEAD CABLE TRAY, THE LOOP IN HIS SAF ETY BELT LANYARD BECAME ENTANGLED WITH THE ROTATING SHAFT COLLAR BOLT STUDS. HE WAS SPUN AROUND WITH THE SHAFT, SUFFERING MULTIPLE BODY WOUNDS. HE WAS KILLED. ICIAN FOREMAN ASSIGNED EMPLOYEE #1 AND A CO-WORKER TO INSTALL METAL CONDUITS IN AN OVERHEAD CABLE TRAY. ALLEGEDLY THE EMPLOYEES WERE TOLD TO WORK FROM A STRAIGH T WOODEN LADDER, BUT DUE TO THE CONDITIONS AND THE NATURE OF THE WORK TO BE DONE IT WAS IMPRACTICLE TO DO SO. THE EMPLOYEES HAD TO WORK AROUND AND OVER VARIOUS SIZES OF CONCRETE FOUNDATIONS ABOUT FIVE FEET, EIGHT INCHES HIGH. A CABLE TRAY, APPROXIMATELY 13 FEET ABOVE THE CONCRETE FLOOR, RUNS NEAR THE CEILING AND MAKES AN "S" TURN. THIS CONFIGURATION MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO POSITION THE STRAIGHT LADD ER SO THAT THE EMPLOYEES COULD WORK FROM IT AT ALL TIMES. THERE ARE MULTI CONCRE

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 20 M

Nature of injury
3

Part of body
4

Event type
2

Source
26

Occupation code
999

Human factor
18

Environmental factor
2

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.