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 #514802

HEAD,STEAM LINE,WORK RULES,RUPTURE,BACK,HIGH PRESSURE,FALL,FALL PROTECTION,PRESSURE RELEASE,REFINERY

Event
HEAD,STEAM LINE,WORK RULES,RUPTURE,BACK,HIGH PRESSURE,FALL,FALL PROTECTION,PRESSURE RELEASE,REFINERY
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
514802
Report ID
625700

Event description

One employee killed, one injured when pipe releases pressure

Investigation abstract

At approximately 11:35 p.m. on March 14, 1990, Employees #1 and #2 were working were not wearing fall protection. in the C-cat unit at the Citgo Refinery in Lake Clade, LA. They were standing on an overhead pipe rack cracking a valve on a 10-in.-diameter steam line to allow steam to flow into downstream piping. The pressure in the line was approximatel y 250 OPR. There was a sudden unexpected rupture in two 10-in.-diameter steam li nes approximately 10 ft upstream from where the employees were working. The sudd en eruption of steam knocked Employee #1 from the pipe rack 15 ft to the ground. He suffered a head fracture and died on March 20, 1990. Employee #2 was knocked onto the pipe rack, and he sustained shrapnel wounds to his back. The employees

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 35 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    5
    Source
    2
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 27 M

    Nature of injury
    7
    Part of body
    3
    Event type
    1
    Source
    2
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    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.