OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #608380
THRALL CAR MANUFACTURING COMPANY
WINDER, GA·
Event description
EMPLOYEE STRUCK AND KILLED BY OVERTURNED CLAMP MACHINE
Investigation abstract
At approximately 5:45 p.m. on June 14, 1989, Employee #1 was welding on the bed of a flat railroad car, which was locked into position. A job built pneumatic cl amp device was used to hold work into position. The clamp device was built like a gantry crane with the pneumatic jacks mounted in place of crane unit. The jack s were activated, causing the gantry frame to lift upwards on the rails. Rail cl amps had been on both sides of the wheels beneath the rails, but due to a previo us wreck the rail clamps hand been removed from the inside of each wheel. The up lift action on the rail clamps overpowered the capacity of a clamp and overturne d the frame, which crushed and killed Employee #1.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 38 Male
- Nature of injury
- Fracture (12)
- Part of body
- CHEST (5)
- Accident type
- STRUCK BY (1)
- Source of injury
- MACHINE (26)
- Occupation
- Welders and cutters (783)
- Human factor
- SAFETY DEVICES REMOVED/INOPER. (9)
- Environmental factor
- FLYING OBJECT ACTION (5)
- Task assigned
- Task regularly assigned (1)
Labels are OSHA's own, from the code dictionary published with the accident-investigation file. The raw code is shown beside each one so this page can be reconciled against OSHA's bulk data. OSHA notes that nature of injury, part of body, source of injury and accident type in this file are not coded to the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System, and that the occupation titles are not standardised — so these values are not directly comparable with the OIICS-coded severe injury reports.