OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14547590
WESTERN GEOPHYSICAL CO. OF AMERICA
PRUDHOE BAY, AK·
Event description
Employee Killed When Caught in Rotating Drill
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 and a driller were starting work from their respective work platform es. He sustained severe trauma to his head and torso and was killed. s on one of eight machines drilling seismic test holes. A Mayhew 1000 drill (No. 3810; Valley Tool, Serial No. 70-51-10) mounted on a Nodwell FN110 track vehicl e, was warming up before operation in the subzero weather. The control levers fo r the drill were on the left side of the tower, and Employee #1, the driller's h elper, was standing on the right side. The driller was having trouble shifting t he transmission, so Employee #1 stepped from his work area, past the rotating ap paratus, to reach in to help shift it. His clothing became caught in the rotatin g machinery, and he was wrapped around the rotary table and drill stem three tim
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 23 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 598
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 2
- 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.