Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025
105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221670128

THE WESTERN SUGAR COOPERATIVE

Event
Gas, Hydrogen Sulfide, Overexposure, Unconsciousness, Unresponsive, Water
NAICS
311313
Inspection type
Federal Agency
Activity number
#347517054
Employer profile
THE WESTERN SUGAR COOPERATIVE
Summary number
221670128
Report ID
0830500

Event description

Employee dies when exposed to H2S gas while attempting rescu

Investigation abstract

At 3:22 p.m. on May 29, 2024, Employee #1 was attempting to rescue a fellow employee who had been overcome by hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas in an underground pump house. Prior to this incident, multiple coworkers had been working in the pump house and were exposed to H2S gas emitted from a pipe containing water with by-products from sugar beets, dirt, mud, and chemicals used in water treatment. The victim became overwhelmed by the H2S gas, and Employee #1 was also overexposed while attempting the rescue. The employee lost consciousness and was later found unresponsive.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 26 M

    Event type
    8
    Occupation code
    519

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.