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Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #601492

CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,STRUCK BY,WATER PIPE,CAVE-IN

Event
CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,STRUCK BY,WATER PIPE,CAVE-IN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
601492
Report ID
420600

Event description

Employee killed, one injured when struck by water pipe

Investigation abstract

At approximately 9:00 a.m. on July 6, 1988, Employees #1 and #2 were leveling gr avel approximately 11 feet deep at the bottom of an excavation, preparing to ins tall a sanitary sewer line. A 10 inch diameter PVC water main had been installed approximately 3 feet deep along one side of the excavation 10 days before. A co ncrete thrust block had been poured around the water pipe next to a fire hydrant . The ground caved in beneath the block, causing the pipe to pull loose at a joi nt. The weight of the block caused the pipe to whip sideways, striking the emplo yees. Employee #1 was killed and Employee #2 was hospitalized.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 22 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    20
    Event type
    1
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    13
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 31 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    21
    Event type
    1
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    13
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    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.