OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221650997
VADNAIS TRENCHLESS SERVICES, INC.
ORLANDO, FL·
Event description
Employee is killed when struck by pressurized rubber plug
Investigation abstract
At 12:00 p.m. on March 20, 2024, an employee was air leak testing a newly installed 56-inch drainpipe. The pipe extended from one side of the street to the other, roughly 150 feet. They placed a rubber pressure plug on one side and another on the testing site across the street. At about 30 minutes into the air leak testing, they noticed the pressure on the pipe had decreased, so the employee descended to the bottom of the trench and began to apply soapy water around the edges of the plug. The plug gave way, projecting itself and the employee on to a wall approximately 15 feet from the pipe. The employee was killed by the force of the pressurized rubber plug.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 34 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.