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 #14555064

BLASTING,HEAD,ROCK,DYNAMITE,STRUCK BY,FLYING OBJECT

Event
BLASTING,HEAD,ROCK,DYNAMITE,STRUCK BY,FLYING OBJECT
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14555064
Report ID
931800

Event description

EMPLOYEE STRUCK BY FLYING ROCK

Investigation abstract

ROAD CREW EMPLOYEES OF YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK WERE CLEARING ROCKS AND SNOW FROM INJURED EMPLOYEE. THE BLAST CONSISTED OF TWO CHARGES OF 10 STICKS EACH OF 60% D YNAMITE, FIRED BY ELECTRIC BLASTING CAPS. ALL BLASTING PROCEDURES AS OUTLINED IN THE YOSEMITE PARK BLASTING MANUAL, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE DISTANCES FROM THE BLAST SITE, WERE BEING FOLLOWED DURING THIS OPERATION. THE DISTANCES TO BE MAIN TAINED FROM THE BLAST SITE ARE LEFT UP TO THE BLASTER IN CHARGE. HE DETERMINED T HAT THE DISTANCES WERE SUFFICIENT TO PREVENT INJURY. HIGHWAY 120 (TIOGA PASS ROAD). THIS OPERATION INVOLVED THE BLASTING OF VARIOUS R OCKS FROM CUTS TO PREVENT THEM FROM SLIDING ONTO THE ROADWAY. A THREE MAN CREW, CONSISTING OF A BLASTER (IN CHARGE) AND TWO EMPLOYEES ACTING AS FLAGMEN, WERE AS SIGNED TO THE WORK. DURING THE BLASTING OF A BOULDER, ONE OF THE FLAGMEN WAS STR UCK IN THE HEAD BY A FLYING ROCK. HE WAS APPROXIMATELY 453 FEET, STRAIGHT LINE D ISTANCE, FROM THE SITE OF THE BLAST, WHICH WAS LOCATED AROUND A CURVE IN THE ROA DWAY. THE BLASTER WAS 341 FEET AWAY, AND THE OTHER FLAGMAN WAS 391 FEET AWAY IN THE OTHER DIRECTION. HE WAS ALSO AROUND A CURVE IN THE ROAD. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS THE

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 52 M

    Nature of injury
    6
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    4
    Environmental factor
    5
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    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.