OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14499826
A O SMITH AUTOMOTIVE PRODUCTS COMPANY
MILWAUKEE, WI·
Event description
EMPLOYEE ASPHYXIATED WHEN HE INHALED CARBON DIOXIDE
Investigation abstract
THREE EMPLOYEES WERE TEST DISCHARGING A CARBON DIOXIDE EXTINGUISHING SYSTEM. ONL Y ONE OF THE THREE EMPLOYEES WAS PROVIDED WITH A RESPIRATOR. WHEN THE DIP TANK S YSTEM WAS DISCHARGED, THE CARBON DIOXIDE FILLED A LARGER AREA THAN WAS ANTICIPAT ED BY THE CREW. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS ENGULFED BY THE DISCHARGED GAS. DUE TO A DELAYED RESCUE ATTEMPT, EMPLOYEE #1 SUFFERED BRAIN DAMAGE LEADING TO A FATAL CARDIAC AR REST.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 43 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 29
- Event type
- 12
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 519
- Human factor
- 19
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0530
- 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.