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 #170248652

BLOOD CLOT,FRACTURE,INADEQUATE MAINT,STEPLADDER,WORK RULES,LADDER,SLIP,FALL,PULMONARY EMBOLISM,ANKLE

Event
BLOOD CLOT,FRACTURE,INADEQUATE MAINT,STEPLADDER,WORK RULES,LADDER,SLIP,FALL,PULMONARY EMBOLISM,ANKLE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
170248652
Report ID
1055330

Event description

Employee injured in fall from stepladder, later dies

Investigation abstract

At 8:02 a.m. on December 22, 1989, Employee #1 was retrieving merchandise from s ome steel shelving when the bottom of the 8 ft wooden stepladder he was using sl ipped out from under him. He fell approximately 3 ft, suffering a compound fract ure and dislocation of his left ankle. The injury required hospitalization and o pen surgical reduction. At 11:10 a.m. on February 4, 1990, Employee #1 suffered a massive bilateral pulmonary embolism and died, a direct result of blood clots that had formed in his immobilized left leg following the initial accident. The stepladder was defective, was not in good repair, and was not placed properly ag ainst the shelving.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 35 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    11
    Event type
    5
    Source
    25
    Occupation code
    686
    Human factor
    12
    Environmental factor
    18
    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.