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 #14521405

CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,SLOPING,BURIED,CAVE-IN

Event
CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,SLOPING,BURIED,CAVE-IN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14521405
Report ID
524500

Event description

EMPLOYEE BURIED TO WAIST IN TRENCH CAVE-IN

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 WAS WORKING IN A TRENCH LOCATED ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF 112 1/2 ELM STR UED FOR NOT SLOPING OR SHORING. EET, TREMONT, ILLINOIS. HE WAS WORKING AT THE WEST END OF THE TRENCH, INSTALLING A 12 1/2 FOOT SECTION OF SEWER LINE. THE TRENCH WAS 15 FEET LONG, 8 FEET DEEP, 4 FEET WIDE AT THE TOP AND 2 FEET WIDE AT THE BOTTOM. THE BOTTOM PORTION OF THE TRENCH CAVED IN ON EMPLOYEE #1, BURYING HIM UP TO HIS WAIST. THE TRENCH WAS DUG IN PREVIOUSLY DISTURBED SOFT CLAY DIRT. HE WAS TAKEN TO A HOSPITAL FOR OBSERVATI ON, BUT WAS NOT INJURED. THE OWNER OF THE R & M CONSTRUCTION COMPANY WAS WORKING NEAR THE TRENCH WHEN THE CAVE-IN OCCURRED. A TRENCH BOX COULD NOT BE USED, AS T HERE WERE POWER LINES BURIED ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE TRENCH. A CITATION WAS ISS

Victim

  1. #1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 26 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    4
    Hazardous substance
    0880
    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.