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 #14500110

TANK TRUCK,SODIUM HYDROXIDE,CLEANING,DIZZINESS,TOXIC FUMES,OVEREXPOSURE,CARBON MONOXIDE,TRUCK DRIVER,CONFINED SPACE,CHEMICAL REACTION

Event
TANK TRUCK,SODIUM HYDROXIDE,CLEANING,DIZZINESS,TOXIC FUMES,OVEREXPOSURE,CARBON MONOXIDE,TRUCK DRIVER,CONFINED SPACE,CHEMICAL REACTION
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14500110
Report ID
523400

Event description

Employee dies of carbon monoxide exposure in tank truck

Investigation abstract

Employee #2 entered into a whey tanker truck that had been cleaned by a clean in sure. place (CIP) process. The CIP operation failed to remove the precipitated sugars that had settled into the bottom. Carbon monoxide was generated by a reaction b etween the whey sugars and sodium hydroxide. Employee #2 entered the tanker and started to hose it out. After he was 2/3 finished, he felt dizzy and exited the tank. Because no one was cleaning his truck tanker, Employee #1 entered the tank er and started to clean. He was found face down in the tank a short time later. Employees #3 and #4 entered to rescue him. Once Employee #1 was removed, unsucce ssful attempts were made to revive him. Employee #1 died of carbon monoxide expo

Victims (4)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 55 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    25
    Event type
    8
    Source
    10
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    18
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    0560
    Task assigned
    2
  2. #2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 35 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    25
    Event type
    8
    Source
    10
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    18
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    0560
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #3 Non-hospitalized injury Age 35 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    25
    Event type
    8
    Source
    10
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    18
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    0560
    Task assigned
    2
  4. #4 Non-hospitalized injury Age 28 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    25
    Event type
    8
    Source
    10
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    18
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    0560
    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.