OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #570952
HEAD,WALL,COLLAPSE,PINNED,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,INEXPERIENCE,CRANE OPERATOR,TANK,UNTRAINED
Event description
Employee killed when struck by collapsing metal tank wall
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was working on a scaffold inside a used steel storage tank of 200,00 crane operator reposition the crane to lift the remaining two sections. The cran e was now operating outside of a concrete dike wall and boomed between a second tank and the two remaining tank wall sections. Because of the poor stitch cuttin g, the employer was forced to remove the section farthest from the crane first; he felt the amount of metal in place to support the tank was less than he desire d. He had the crane operator remove this section and, because the crane began to tip, had the piece set down. Once it was stabilized, the crane operator moved t he curved wall between the still uncut tank and the last freestanding wall on th e tank being cut down. Because of the confined area and additional clearance pro blems, he had the crane operator move closer to the freestanding wall. The load 0 gallon capacity that was being removed for relocation. The employer intended t struck the wall section, causing it to collapse and crush Employee #1 on the sca ffold inside the tank. Employee #1 sustained a massive head injury when he was s truck in the face with the falling wall section; his head was pinned against the metal tank floor. He died. o salvage the lowest and highest rings of the five-ring tank. The center three s ections, approximately 24 ft high, were to be scrapped. To expedite the job, the employer decided to remove the center section of the tank in five wall sections of 24 ft by 20 ft by 3/8 in. The tank was stitch cut and the disassembly began. The employer was using a crane operator who had never operated a crane before a nd had received approximately 1/2 hour of verbal familiarization before beginnin g the job. After removing three sections of the tank wall, the employer had the
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 22 M
- Nature of injury
- 6
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 8
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 6
- 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.