OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14504021
SNODGRASS CONST. CO., INC.
WICHITA, KS·
Event description
Employee killed, one injured when trench caves in
Investigation abstract
Employees were replacing a large concrete water-holding tank for a car wash with a slightly larger one. After the old tank had been removed, the hole in the gro und for the replacement tank was enlarged using a backhoe. Employee #1, the back hoe operator, believed he could not get the bottom of the excavation properly gr aded with the backhoe, so he and Employee #2 went into the hole to hand grade th e bottom using shovels. The hole/trench was 8 ft 11 in. deep by approximately 14 ft long by 6 1/2 to almost 8 ft wide. While they were in the trench, the south wall caved in on them, completely burying Employee #2 and killing him and coveri ng Employee #1 to his waist.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 47 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 17
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 12
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 9
- Environmental factor
- 6
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Fatality Age 31 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 12
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 9
- 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.