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Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14544506

SUFFOCATED,WORK RULES,SHORING,CAVE-IN,INSTALLING,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SLOPING,BURIED

Event
SUFFOCATED,WORK RULES,SHORING,CAVE-IN,INSTALLING,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SLOPING,BURIED
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14544506
Report ID
317700

Event description

Two employees killed in trench cave-in

Investigation abstract

At 5:30 p.m. on August 7, 1987, Employees #1 and #2 were in an 11 to 14 ft deep trench, installing a sluice drain pipe in the center of the Sunrise Trailer Park in Honesdale Borough, PA. A wall or walls of the soft, clay-type soil caved in, burying them. Employees #1 and #2 died of suffocation. The trench was neither s hored nor sloped.

Victims (3)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 19 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    14
    Source
    42
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    13
    Task assigned
    2
  2. #2 Fatality Age 59 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    14
    Source
    42
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    13
    Task assigned
    2
  3. #981 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0

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.