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 #14498885

CHEST,FRACTURE,CONSTRUCTION,LIVER,TRENCH,RIB,SHORING,SLOPING,CAVE-IN,VERTEBRA

Event
CHEST,FRACTURE,CONSTRUCTION,LIVER,TRENCH,RIB,SHORING,SLOPING,CAVE-IN,VERTEBRA
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14498885
Report ID
626600

Event description

TWO CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYEES INJURED IN TRENCH CAVE-IN

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 (A WELDER) AND EMPLOYEE #2 (HIS HELPER) WERE WELDING JOINTS OF PIPE IN A TRENCH, 25 FEET LONG, 10 FEET DEEP AND 6 FEET WIDE AT THE BOTTOM. NO SHORIN G OR OTHER SUPPORT HAD BEEN USED TO PREVENT CAVE-INS. A HEAVY CATTERPILLAR PIPE LAYER WAS PARKED 6 OR 7 FEET FROM THE TRENCH'S EDGE. A HEAVILY TRAVELLED STREET WAS NEARBY. A CAVE-IN OCCURRED IN THE AREA BETWEEN THE PIPE LAYING MACHINE AND T HE TRENCH, PARTIALLY BURYING THE TWO EMPLOYEES. THEY WERE RESCUED BY THE FIRE DE PARTMENT. EMPLOYEE #1 SUFFERED A FRACTURE OF HIS 5TH VERTEBRA AND 4 BROKEN SPURS . EMPLOYEE #2 SUFFERED BROKEN RIBS, CHEST INJURIES AND LIVER FAILURE.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 35 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 32 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    3
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    6
    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.