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 #14549844

DITCH,WORK RULES,CLEANING,SLIP,CLOGGED,ABRASION,SLIPPERY SURFACE,DROWN,CONTUSION,WATER

Event
DITCH,WORK RULES,CLEANING,SLIP,CLOGGED,ABRASION,SLIPPERY SURFACE,DROWN,CONTUSION,WATER
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14549844
Report ID
454735

Event description

One employee drowns, one bruised in fall into culvert

Investigation abstract

A street and sanitation supervisor and a six-man crew were removing trash and de bris from a clogged culvert. The culvert was in a 20 to 25 ft deep ditch that he ld approximately 4 ft of water. The workers were passing up debris from the wate r to the top of the bank when Employee #1 slipped on the mud and fell into the w ater. Employee #2 grabbed his hand, but was unable to pull him out. The force of the water pulled in Employee #2, and both men were swept through a 36 in. diame ter culvert for approximately 300 to 400 ft. Employee #1 drowned, and Employee # 2 suffered bruises and abrasions.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 39 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    41
    Occupation code
    99
    Human factor
    8
    Environmental factor
    18
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 44 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    5
    Source
    41
    Occupation code
    99
    Human factor
    8
    Environmental factor
    18
    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.