OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221644024

G.A. WEST & CO., LLC

MOBILE, AL· 2024-02-23T00:00:00

Event: Blunt force, Blunt force trauma, Bucket, Cable, Chest, Commercial Building, Concrete Pipe, Construction, Construction vehicle, Equipment Operator, Excavation, Excavator, Fracture, Guide, Hoist, Hoisting Mechanism, Laborer, Material Handling, Misjudgment, Misjudgment of Hazardous Situation, Rigging, Struck By, Suspended Load, Trench, Trench Box
NAICS: 237110
Inspection type: Federal Agency
Activity number: #347302721
Employer profile: G.A. WEST & CO., LLC
Summary number: 221644024
Report ID: 0418600
Project type: A
Construction end-use: C

Event description

Employee dies of chest trauma when struck by suspended load

Investigation abstract

At 3:30 p.m. on February 23, 2024, an employee working as a construction laborer for a water and sewer line contractor was guiding a 24-inch by 8-foot 2,000-pound concrete pipe into position. The pipe was suspended from a steel cable attached to an excavator bucket and was going to be joined with the already laid pipe sections. The employee was working from an approximately 12-foot-deep trench inside of an 8-foot-wide steel trench box. A coworker operating the excavator hit the controls causing the load to shift and strike the employee between the pipe and the wall of the trench box. The employee died from blunt force trauma to his chest trauma.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 46 M

Event type
1

Occupation code
869

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.