105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #671768

HEAD,UNSECURED,RAILROAD CAR,SCRAP METAL,STRUCK BY,FALLING OBJECT,UNSTABLE LOAD

Event
HEAD,UNSECURED,RAILROAD CAR,SCRAP METAL,STRUCK BY,FALLING OBJECT,UNSTABLE LOAD
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
671768
Report ID
551800

Event description

BUNDLE OF SCRAP STEEL FELL FROM RR CAR; STRUCK EMPLOYEE

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 WAS A LOCOMOTIVE OPERATOR, USING A REMOTE CONTROL TO MOVE RAIL CARS AROUND. HE UNDERTOOK TO MOVE TRAIN ENGINE #50 AND SEVEN GONDOLA CARS LOADED FULL OF SCRAP STEEL BUNDLES (THE BUNDLES WERE APPROXIMATELY FOUR FEET BY THREE BY TH REE FEET, WEIGHING APPROXIMATELY A THOUSAND POUNDS APIECE). EMPLOYEE #1 WAS LOCA TED AT THE FRONT OF THE SIXTH CAR, APPROXIMATELY SIX FEET EAST OF THE TRACKS. WH EN EMPLOYEE #1 WAS FOUND, ONE SCRAP STEEL BUNDLE WAS ON THE GROUND JUST EAST OF HIS HEAD. IT IS LOGICAL TO ASSUME THAT THE BUNDLE FELL FROM ONE OF THE RAIL CARS AND STRUCK, AND KILLED, EMPLOYEE #1.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 59 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    1
    Source
    28
    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.