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 #14549695

MAINTENANCE,CRANE HOOK,WIRE ROPE,OVERHEAD CRANE,STRUCK BY,TWO-BLOCKING,CRANE BLOCK,FALLING OBJECT,CRANE

Event
MAINTENANCE,CRANE HOOK,WIRE ROPE,OVERHEAD CRANE,STRUCK BY,TWO-BLOCKING,CRANE BLOCK,FALLING OBJECT,CRANE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14549695
Report ID
454714

Event description

ORCHARD CRANE "TWO-BLOCKED", BLOCK FELL, STRIKING EMPLOYEES

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEES #1 AND #2 WERE PART OF A FIVE MAN CREW WHICH WAS CHANGING AN 18 INCH F COUNTERWEIGHT. THE BLOCK CONTINUED UPWARD, CONTACTING THE DRUM. THE WIRE ROPE B ROKE, ALLOWING THE 700 POUND BLOCK/HOOK TO FALL INTO THE BASKET CONTAINING EMPLO YEES #1 AND #2. EMPLOYEE #1 RECEIVED CRITICAL INJURIES. EMPLOYEE #2 RECEIVED MIN OR INJURIES. SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED POOR CRANE MAINTENANCE, INADEQUAT E TRAINING OF PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL, UNSAFE WORK PRACTICES AND INAD EQUATE RECORD KEEPING PROCEDURES. EED ROLL IN AN ALUMINUM RECYCLING BUILDING. THE TWO EMPLOYEES WERE IN THE BASKET OF A HYDRAULIC WORK PLATFORM WHICH WAS SUSPENDED ABOUT 12 FEET ABOVE FLOOR LEVE L. EMPLOYEE #2 WAS OPERATING THE CRANE BY RADIO CONTROL. THERE WAS NO LOAD ON TH E CRANE. WITH THE CRANE BLOCK DIRECTLY ABOVE THE BASKET, EMPLOYEE #2 RAISED THE BLOCK AT FULL SPEED. THE BLOCK, WHICH HAD A DAMAGED TRIPPAN (BENT APPROXIMATELY 10 DEGREES BELOW HORIZONTAL) CONTACTED THE COUNTERWEIGHT FOR THE LIMIT SWITCH. T HE LIMIT SWITCH COUNTERWEIGHT SLID OFF THE BENT TRIPPAN, PARTIALLY DUE TO A BROK EN COUNTERWEIGHT "HAIRPIN", WHICH FAILED TO LIMIT THE HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT OF THE

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 46 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    1
    Source
    24
    Occupation code
    518
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 42 M

    Nature of injury
    7
    Part of body
    17
    Event type
    1
    Source
    24
    Occupation code
    518
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    6
    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.