OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14526305
INSTALLING,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,CRUSHED,UNSTABLE SOIL,CAVE-IN,BACKHOE
Event description
Employee crushed and killed in trench cave-in
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 and a coworker were installing storm drain pipes in a trench that wa s approximately 20 to 30 feet long, 12 to 13 feet deep, and 5 to 6 feet wide. Th e side walls consisted of unstable soil that was undermined by sand and water. T here were 3 to 5 feet of water in the north end of the trench and 5 to 6 inches in the south end. A backhoe was being used on the edge of the trench to clear it of soil and water when the west wall of the trench caved in. Employee #1 was cr ushed, and died as a result of internal injuries.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 32 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 12
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 6
- Environmental factor
- 6
- 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.