OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221739162

ELITE DRILLING SERVICES LLC

FORT MORGAN, CO— 2025-01-30T00:00:00

Event: Abdomen, Amputated, Amputation, Arm, Auger, Auger Mechanism, Broken, Broken Bone, Catch Point, Caught By, Chest, Clothing, Collapsed lung, Dislocated, Drill, Drill, Drilling, Engineering Controls, Entangled, Equipment Operator, Fracture, Head, Instantaneous amputation, Internal, Internal Bleeding, Internal Injuries, Laceration, Lack of Engineering Controls, Lack of Work Procedures, Lung, Machine Guarding, Machine operator, Material Handling, Misjudgment, Misjudgment of Hazardous Situation, PPE, PPE Hazard Assessment, Pinch Point, Pinched, Pulled In, Rib, Rotating Parts, Rotating Shaft, Shear, Sheared, Site Preparation, Soil, Test Equipment, Testing, Torso, Traumatic Amputation, Unguarded, Unsafe Position, Wrist, Wrong Equipment
NAICS: 238910
Inspection type: Federal Agency
Activity number: #348014895
Employer profile: ELITE DRILLING SERVICES LLC
Summary number: 221739162
Report ID: 0830500

Event description

One employee dies, two employees are injured when entangled

Investigation abstract

At 1:30 p.m. on January 30, 2025, Employee #1 and Employee #2, both drillers, but this caused Employee #1 to also be pulled into the rotating mechanism. Employee #1 sustained multiple injuries. Employee #3 then attempted to assist Employee #1 causing her to injured her right wrist in the process. Employee #1 and Employee #3 were hospitalized to treat multiple injuries. and Employee #3, a geologist, were conducting soil testing. Employee #1 was operating a CME 75 Truck Mounted Drill collecting soil samples. While Employee #2 was attempting to collect the soil, a six-foot solid auger was in operation nearby. During the process, the hood of Employee #2's hoodie became caught on the auger connection pins pulling him into the rotating mechanism. This resulted in Employee #2 being rapidly spun at a high velocity. Consequently, Employee #2 forcefully collided with the truck causing multiple fatal injuries Employee #1 attempted to administer life-saving aid to Employee #2 by trying to grab him,

Victims (3)

#1 Hospitalized Age 20 M

Event type
1

Occupation code
598
#2 Hospitalized Age 22 F

Event type
14

Occupation code
75
#3 Fatality Age 45 M

Event type
2

Occupation code
598

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.