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 #14524045

STEARIC ACID,WORK RULES,CHEMICAL BURN,CHEMICAL

Event
STEARIC ACID,WORK RULES,CHEMICAL BURN,CHEMICAL
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14524045
Report ID
522500

Event description

EMPLOYEE BURNED BY ERUPTING STEARIC ACID

Investigation abstract

AT APPROXIMATELY 7:30 AM ON OCTOBER 28, 1985, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS PREPARING TO PUMP STEARIC ACID FROM A TANK CAR. HE OPENED VALVES TO ALLOW STEAM TO BLOW INTO THE B OTTOM OF THE TANK CAR. STEARIC ACID SUDDENLY ERUPTED FROM THE TOP OF THE CAR HAT CH OPENING AND RAN DOWN THE SIDES OF THE CAR ONTO EMPLOYEE #1. HE WAS HOSPITALIZ ED, AND EVENTUALLY DIED OF HEART FAILURE FROM THE INJURIES HE RECEIVED.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 48 M

    Nature of injury
    4
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    14
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    11
    Environmental factor
    9
    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.