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 #170395818

WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,BURIED,CAVE-IN

Event
WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,BURIED,CAVE-IN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
170395818
Report ID
215800

Event description

EMPLOYEE DIES WHEN BURIED IN TRENCH CAVE-IN

Investigation abstract

AT APPROXIMATELY 5:00 P.M., ON OCTOBER 25, 1988, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS BACKFILLING A T RENCH APPROXIMATELY 70 FEET LONG BY 12 FEET WIDE AND 8 TO 12 FEET DEEP WHEN A CR ACK DEVELOPED ON THE EAST SLOPE. THE TRENCH WAS NOT SHORED OR SLOPED AND HEAVY M ACHINERY WAS IN USE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE TRENCH. THE EAST SIDE COLLAPSED AND COM PLETELY BURIED EMPLOYEE #1.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 24 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    17
    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.