OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14535850
MAINTENANCE,ELECTRICAL WORK,LOCKOUT,FALL PROTECTION,ELEVATOR,SCAFFOLD
Event description
CRUSHED BY MOVING ELEVATOR
Investigation abstract
TWO ELECTRICIANS WERE WORKING INSIDE AN ELEVATOR SHAFT AT AN ELECTRIC UTILITY PL TENDED TO PREVENT THE ELEVATOR FROM RECEIVING POWER AND MOVING. THE BOARD GOT KN OCKED OUT OF POSITION, AND THE DOORS CLOSED. THE ELEVATOR BECAME ACTIVE AND DESC ENDED TOWARDS THE TWO EMPLOYEES. ONE OF THEM COULD NOT UNFASTEN THE LANYARD FROM HIS SAFETY BELT AND WAS CRUSHED BY A METAL SKIRT PLATE ON THE BOTTOM OF THE ELE VATOR CAR. HE DIED OF HIS INJURIES. ANT. THEY WERE WORKING ATOP A TEMPORARY PLATFORM THAT WAS SUPPORTED AT ONE END B Y A FIXED LADDER AND AT THE OTHER END BY THE TOP STEP OF A 10-FOOT WOODEN STEPLA DDER. THE PLATFORM WAS POSITIONED INSIDE THE ELEVATOR SHAFT PIT SO THAT THE EMPL OYEES COULD SERVICE THE TOP ROLLERS OF THE HOISTWAY DOORS. THIS COULD ONLY BE PE RFORMED FROM INSIDE THE SHAFT. THE TWO EMPLOYEES WERE USING SAFETY BELTS AND LAN YARDS TO PROTECT THEM AGAINST FALLS. THE ELEVATOR CONTROL AND POWER SYSTEM HAD N OT BEEN LOCKED OUT, HOWEVER. INSTEAD, THE EMPLOYEES HAD PLACED A 2-INCH-BY-4-INC H BOARD ACROSS THE ELEVATOR OPENING TO HOLD THE ELEVATOR DOORS OPEN. THIS WAS IN
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 38 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 575
- Human factor
- 18
- Environmental factor
- 4
- 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.