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 #14511737

MAINTENANCE,FAN BLADE,LOCKOUT,LACERATION,STRUCK BY,BLADE

Event
MAINTENANCE,FAN BLADE,LOCKOUT,LACERATION,STRUCK BY,BLADE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14511737
Report ID
625400

Event description

STRUCK AND FATALLY CUT BY AIR CONDITIONER FAN BLADES

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1, A MEMBER OF THE POST OFFICE MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT, HAD BEEN GIVEN THE JOB OF REPLACING V-BELTS ON A ROOFTOP AIR CONDITIONER. HE WAS WORKING ALONE. HE DID NOT LOCK OUT POWER TO THE AIR CONDITIONER. WHEN THE ENERGIZED UNIT SUDDE NLY STARTED UP, THE FAN BLADES STRUCK HIM, INFLICTING FATAL CUTS. HE APPARENTLY BLED TO DEATH. HIS BODY WAS DISCOVERED THE NEXT DAY AT 11:15 AM. THE EMPLOYEE HA D DONE THIS TYPE OF WORK SEVERAL TIMES BEFORE. THE AIR CONDITIONER FAN BLADES WE RE 45 1/2 INCHES LONG.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 52 M

    Nature of injury
    7
    Part of body
    20
    Event type
    1
    Source
    26
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    13
    Environmental factor
    3
    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.