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 #14571244

HEAD,SLIP,DROWN,SEWAGE,WATER

Event
HEAD,SLIP,DROWN,SEWAGE,WATER
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14571244
Report ID
524700

Event description

SLIPPED, HIT HEAD AND FELL INTO WATER; DROWNED

Investigation abstract

ON MARCH 2, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1 HAD PUNCHED INTO WORK AND WENT TO HIS REPORTING ST FLOOR. THE EMPLOYEE DROWNED. ATION. HE THEN BEGAN HIS ROUNDS OF THE SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT. THE PLANT WAS SCH EDULED FOR A PAPERMILL WASHDOWN THAT DAY, SO LARGE QUANTITIES OF WATER WERE TO E NTER THE WASTE TREATMENT AREA. AS EMPLOYEE #1 ENTERED THE CLARIFIER AREA, HE APP ARENTLY OBSERVED FLOODING IN THE CLARIFIER BUILDING. THE CLARIFIER REMOVES WASTE PAPER FROM THE PLANT WATER DISCHARGE. THE EMPLOYEE APPARENTLY ENTERED THE BUILD ING AND ATTEMPTED TO ASCEND THE CLARIFIER MACHINE TO REACH THE DISCHARGE CONTROL VALVE. HE APPARENTLY SLIPPED AND FELL, STRIKING HIS HEAD. THE BUILDING, WHICH W AS TEN FEET BY TEN FEET IN SIZE, WAS FLOODED, WITH 3 TO 5 INCHES OF WATER ON THE

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 36 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    41
    Occupation code
    694
    Human factor
    10
    Environmental factor
    13
    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.