OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14568174
STORAGE BIN,SUFFOCATED,FLOWING MATERIAL,BRIDGED MATERIAL,BURIED,TIE-OFF
Event description
BURIED AND SUFFOCATED BY SOYBEAN HULLS
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 AND ANOTHER EMPLOYEE WERE WORKING IN A 20 FOOT DIAMETER, 30 FOOT HIG H SOYBEAN STORAGE TANK. THEY WERE TRYING TO LOOSEN SOME BRIDGED SOYBEAN HULLS SO THAT THEY WOULD FALL ONTO THE UNLOADING AUGER. WHEN THE FOREMAN NOTICED THE TWO EMPLOYEES IN THE TANK, HE ORDERED THEM OUT. ONE WAS ABLE TO GET OUT, BUT THE HU LLS CAVED IN BEFORE EMPLOYEE #1 COULD MAKE IT OUT. HE WAS BURIED AND SUFFOCATED. THE EMPLOYEES DID NOT FOLLOW COMPANY POLICY. THE POLICY PROHIBITS ENTRY INTO TH E STORAGE TANK WHEN THE HULL LEVEL IS WAIST HIGH OR HIGHER.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 25 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 14
- Occupation code
- 883
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 6
- 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.