OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #607192
SAND SILO,ASPHYXIATED,LIFELINE,PPE,WORK RULES,SAFETY BELT,CONSTRUCTION,INHALATION,BURIED
Event description
Employee dies when engulfed in sand bin
Investigation abstract
On November 14, 1989, Employee #1 was the second in charge of a 4-man field crew the bin grate. Employee #1 went into the sand bin to retrieve the rail. He did n ot wear ppe--a safety belt, line, or harness. Employee #1 rode the headache ball of a RO Stinger 110-1 truck crane as it was lowered to the bottom gate of the s and bin through a small opening in the bin grate. He attached the rail to the cr ane line. As the rail was raised, the residual sand on the walls of the bin fell and completely engulfed Employee #1. He died of asphyxiation and inhalation of sand. The grate over the bin used as a work platform was not covered. The employ ees were allowed to enter bins to retrieve tools and materials by riding the hea dache ball, without using ppe. The employer had no procedures for entering bins or silos. The employees were not instructed in the site hazards. The bin could h that had been contracted to install a rail unloading conveyor system at an exis ave been emptied of sand before the conveyor was installed. ting ready mix concrete plant. The crew was working over a large drive-over sand bin that was 15 1/2 ft deep by 40 ft long by 15 ft wide. This bin opened up int o a smaller weigh hopper and conveyor. The grate over the top of the bin was mad e of widely spaced rails designed for bottom opening dump trucks to drive over a nd dump. The employees were working off the grate, with no floor covers. Employe e #1 was making adjustments to the conveyor. At approximately 10:30 a.m., a cowo rker dropped a rope and then a section of the rail grate through the opening in
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 30 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 12
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 20
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Task assigned
- 2
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.