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Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #606913

ASPHYXIATED,VENTILATION,CONFINED SPACE,WORK RULES,AIR MONITORING,TOXIC ATMOSPHERE,CONSTRUCTION,TOXIC FUMES,MANHOLE

Event
ASPHYXIATED,VENTILATION,CONFINED SPACE,WORK RULES,AIR MONITORING,TOXIC ATMOSPHERE,CONSTRUCTION,TOXIC FUMES,MANHOLE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
606913
Report ID
418100

Event description

Three employees killed when asphyxiated in manhole

Investigation abstract

At approximately noon on August 19, 1988, employees were cleaning the liner of a space entry procedure. No measuring equipment had been used to detect toxic or combustible gases and oxygen levels. No rescue equipment or procedure was availa ble. No mechanical ventilation was used. The weather was hot, with temperatures in the 90s. man-made lake in preparation for filling the lake. An employee needed to enter a vertical 24 foot manhole to close a gate valve so that the lake would be close d and could then be filled with water. Employee #2, a superintendent, entered th e 24 in. wide manhole. Employee #3, the foreman who noticed that Employee #2 was having a problem, yelled at Employee #1, another superintendent, for help. Empl oyee #3 entered the manhole, followed by Employee #1. All three employees died o f asphyxiation. The manhole had been in operation since January 1988. There was water and brown matter in the bottom of the manhole. The company had no confined

Victims (3)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 36 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    12
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    16
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    1640
    Task assigned
    1

  2. #2 Fatality Age 31 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    12
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    16
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    1640
    Task assigned
    1

  3. #3 Fatality Age 34 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    12
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    16
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    1640
    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.

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