OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14511588
CONFINED SPACE,SUFFOCATED,RAILROAD CAR,CLOGGED,FLOWING MATERIAL,FALL PROTECTION
Event description
EMPLOYEE SUFFOCATED IN FLOWING MATERIAL (UREA)
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 AND ANOTHER EMPLOYEE WERE UNLOADING UREA FROM A RAILROAD TANK CAR. T BY THE SCREAMS COMING FROM THE RAILCAR AND CAME TO HELP. THEY RESCUED THE SECON D EMPLOYEE WITH ROPES, BUT WERE UNABLE TO REACH EMPLOYEE #1 IN TIME TO SAVE HIM. HE SUFFOCATED. FALL PROTECTION HAD NOT BEEN PROVIDED, NOR REQUIRED, BY THE EMPL OYER TO PREVENT FALLS INTO, OR OUTSIDE OF, THE RAIL CAR. HE CAR WAS SECURED ON A SPUR TRACK OF A FERTILIZER BLENDING PLANT. THE EMPLOYEES HAD OPENED THE CAR'S BOTTOM DOOR TO ALLOW THE UREA TO GRAVITY FEED INTO AN UNDE RGROUND FEED CHUTE AND ONTO A CONVEYOR FOR TRANSPORT TO THE STORAGE BINS. BOTH E MPLOYEES WERE STRIKING THE SIDES OF THE CAR WITH SLEDGE HAMMERS TO DISLODGE UREA WHICH HAD STUCK TO THE SIDES OF THE CAR. EMPLOYEE #1 CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF THE CAR AND OPENED A 20 FOOT WIDE BY 15 FOOT LONG HATCH SO THAT HE COULD SEE HOW MUC H UREA WAS LEFT. HE FELL INTO THE CAR. THE OTHER EMPLOYEE CLIMBED UP TO THE HATC H AND ENTERED THE CAR TO TRY TO RESCUE EMPLOYEE #1. OTHER EMPLOYEES WERE ALERTED
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 18 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 38
- Occupation code
- 889
- Human factor
- 20
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Hazardous substance
- 8880
- 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.