OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14533129

H AND M SYSTEMS, INC.

ST. THOMAS, VI· 1987-02-02T00:00:00

Event: ASPHYXIATED, REPAIR, VENTILATION, CONFINED SPACE, WORK RULES, INHALATION, NATURAL GAS, TANK, UNTRAINED, RESPIRATOR
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Accident-driven
Activity number: #17976705
Employer profile: H AND M SYSTEMS, INC.
Summary number: 14533129
Report ID: 215300

Event description

Employee dies of asphyxia after being overcome by gas

Investigation abstract

Employee #1 was repairing a sewage pump inside a 900 gallon cylindrical septic t ank that was 6 ft high, 5 1/2 ft diameter at the top, and 4 3/5 ft diameter at t he bottom. According to the medical examiner, Employee #1 was overcome by a gas, possibly methane. The autopsy report stated that Employee #1 died of asphyxia, which was secondary to methane inhalation. No methane was measured or detected b y the medical examiner. Employee #1 was not issued the proper respirator. Employ ees had not been trained.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 45 M

Nature of injury
2

Part of body
4

Event type
8

Source
19

Occupation code
999

Human factor
19

Environmental factor
7

Hazardous substance
1640

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.