OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14523211
SEWER,LOST BALANCE,CONFINED SPACE,CONSTRUCTION,DROWN,POOR VISIBILITY
Event description
EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN HE ENTERED UNLIT SEWER CHAMBER
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1, A PROJECT MANAGER FOR A MAJOR SEWAGE TUNNEL PROJECT, DISCOVERED AN FLOATING FACE DOWN, DEAD. UNDERGROUND CHAMBER ADJACENT TO A LAND SITE BEING LEVELED BY A D-7 DOZER FOR THE EMPLACEMENT OF A PILE DRIVING RIG. HE WANTED TO FLAG THE CORNERS OF THE CHAMBER TO KEEP THE DOZER OFF THE ROOF, SO HE RAISED ONE OF THE MANHOLE COVERS AND DESC ENDED INTO THE 12 FOOT DEEP CHAMBER. (THE CHAMBER WAS A COMPONENT OF A SEWAGE PL ANT MANY ACRES IN SIZE.) HE FAILED TO TEST THE ATMOSPHERE INSIDE THE CHAMBER, NO R DID HE TAKE A LIGHT, OR VENTILATE, OR TAKE A ROPE. HE TOOK ABOUT 4 STEPS AND S TUMBLED INTO AN 8 FOOT DEEP SEWER CHANNEL CONTAINING ABOUT 6 FEET OF RAPIDLY FLO WING SEWAGE. HE WAS SWEPT ABOUT 200 FEET TO THE NEXT CHAMBER, WHERE HE WAS FOUND
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 50 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 9
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 53
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#982 Degree 0 Age 0
- Nature of injury
- 0
- Part of body
- 0
- Event type
- 0
- Source
- 0
- Occupation code
- 0
- Human factor
- 0
- Environmental factor
- 0
- Task assigned
- 0
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.