105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14559397

DERRICK,OIL WELL DRILLING,DRILL COLLAR,STRUCK BY,FALLING OBJECT,OIL RIG

Event
DERRICK,OIL WELL DRILLING,DRILL COLLAR,STRUCK BY,FALLING OBJECT,OIL RIG
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14559397
Report ID
855610

Event description

STRUCK BY FALLING DRILL COLLAR

Investigation abstract

AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT A DRILL BIT ON AN OIL DRILLING RIG WAS BEING CHANGED HE CONDITION OF THE LIFTING SUB. ALSO, IT IS PROBABLE THAT NOT ENOUGH WEIGHT WAS TAKEN OFF THE ELEVATORS. . EIGHT EMPLOYEES FROM TWO DIFFERENT CREWS WERE ON OR NEAR THE DRILL FLOOR WHERE THE BIT WAS BEING INSTALLED. A LIFTING SUB HAD BEEN SCREWED INTO THE TOP OF A D RILL COLLAR AND WAS PICKED UP BY THE RIG ELEVATORS. A BELL SUB WAS THEN SCREWED INTO THE BOTTOM OF THE COLLAR, AND THE ASSEMBLY WAS PLACED ON TOP OF THE BIT. TH E ELEVATORS WERE LOWERED SLIGHTLY, TRANSFERRING THE COLLAR'S WEIGHT ONTO THE BIT . A CHAIN TONG WAS PLACED ONTO THE BELL SUB AND WAS MANUALLY SCREWED ONTO THE BI T. AT THE SAME TIME THE DRILL COLLAR UNSCREWED FROM THE LIFTING SUB AND FELL OUT THE OPEN SIDE OF THE DERRICK, STRIKING EMPLOYEE #1. NO ONE LOOKED UP TO CHECK T

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 31 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    1
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    614
    Human factor
    1
    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.