OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #607929

HEAD,DISMANTLING,WORK RULES,RAILROAD CAR,CORROSION,STRUCK BY,FALLING OBJECT,CUTTING AND BURNING

1987-03-11T00:00:00

Event: HEAD,DISMANTLING,WORK RULES,RAILROAD CAR,CORROSION,STRUCK BY,FALLING OBJECT,CUTTING AND BURNING
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 607929
Report ID: 418100

Event description

EMPLOYEE STRUCK BY END OF RAILROAD CAR DURING CUTTING

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 WAS EMPLOYED AS A PIECE-WORK BURNER WHOSE JOB WAS TO CUT SCRAP RAILR OAD CARS INTO SMALL PIECES WITH AN OXY-ACETYLENE CUTTING TORCH. HE BEGAN TO CUT THE END OFF AN L & N OPEN TOP HOPPER CAR. HE CUT ALL THE BRACES OFF ONE SIDE AND ALL BUT ONE BRACE ON THE OTHER SIDE. AS HE WAS CUTTING THE BOLTS OFF THE VERTIC AL END SUPPORTS THE ENTIRE END BROKE LOOSE AND FELL ON HIM. HE WAS KILLED WHEN H IS HEAD WAS PINNED BETWEEN THE RAIL CAR END AND SOME RAILWAY TRUCKS PARKED NEARB Y. THE HOPPER CAR WAS BADLY RUSTED, CAUSING THE ENTIRE END TO BREAK OFF WITH THE REMOVAL OF THE END SUPPORTS. THE COMPANY HAS HAD SAFETY MEETINGS AND HAS CAUTIO NED EMPLOYEES TO TAKE SPECIAL CARE WHEN CUTTING RAIL CAR ENDS.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 20 M

Nature of injury
12

Part of body
13

Event type
2

Source
38

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.