104,543Records 70,659Employers 84,666Hospitalizations 27,563Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-09-30
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14542328

DIP TANK,SAWMILL,DROWN,TANK,UNGUARDED

Event
DIP TANK,SAWMILL,DROWN,TANK,UNGUARDED
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14542328
Report ID
418100

Event description

EMPLOYEE FELL INTO DIP TANK AND DROWNED

Investigation abstract

AT 11:45 PM, EMPLOYEE #1 COMPLETED HIS SHIFT IN THE STACKER AREA OF THE HARDWOOD SAWMILL. HE LEFT HIS WORK AREA AND HEADED TOWARD THE PARKING LOT. ON ROUTE TO T HE PARKING LOT, ONE PASSES IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO AN UNGUARDED DIP TANK. THE TANK IS 8 FEET BY 10 FEET AND IS 6 FEET DEEP. THE DIP TANK WAS ALMOST FLUSH WITH THE GROUND AND HAD BEEN INSTALLED ONE WEEK EARLIER. IT WAS FILLED TO A DEPTH OF 5 1 /2 FEET WITH A COPPER NAPHTHANATE TREATMENT. THE FOLLOWING MORNING, A HARD HAT A ND A LUNCHPAIL WERE SEEN FLOATING IN THE TANK. A CLOSER SEARCH REVEALED THE BODY OF EMPLOYEE #1. THE PRELIMINARY AUTOPSY REPORT LISTS THE CAUSE OF DEATH AS DROW NING.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 47 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    5
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    13
    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.