OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14557318
R G DRILLING CO
HOBBS, NM·
Event description
EMPLOYEE STRUCK IN THE CHEST BY LEAD TONGS OF AN OIL RIG
Investigation abstract
ON RG DRILLING RIG #1, EMPLOYEE #1, A DRILLER, WAS TRYING TO TEACH THE MOTOR MAN HOW TO BECOME A DRILLER. HE WAS USING THE BACK-UP TONGS TO SHOW THE FLOOR HAND HOW TO HOLD THE LEAD TONGS. AT THIS TIME, THE MOTOR MAN, WHO IS LEFT-HANDED, PUS HED THE WRONG CONTROL. THE LEAD TONGS, HELD IN PLACE BY A SNUB LINE AT THE END, ROTATED TOWARD THE DRAWWORKS. THE PIPE GRIPS STRUCK EMPLOYEE #1 IN THE CHEST. TH E PIPE GRIPS ON THE LEAD TONGS WERE NOT CONNECTED. THE LINE FROM THE CATHEAD IS CONNECTED TO A PULLEY NEAR THE END OF THE LEAD TONGS. WHEN THE CONTROLS WERE ACT IVATED AND POWER WAS SUPPLIED, THIS PULLEY CAUSED THE TONGS TO ROTATE.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 49 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 5
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 614
- Human factor
- 10
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Task assigned
- 2
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.