OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #687640
SEWER & WATER INC.; DBA EXCELL ENTERPRISES
BROADVIEW HTS, OH·
Event description
Employee killed in trench cave-in
Investigation abstract
A contractor was installing a new residential sewer pipe to a newly installed ci ay. Rescuers refused entry until more of the wall was removed and a bucket restr ained part of the north wall which was showing cracks. Employee #1 was killed. N o shoring and inadequate layback contributed to the accident. ty sewer in virgin sandy clay soil that had many small stones. The sewer trench depth ranged from 17 ft at road berm to 6 ft at the residence. The width at the bottom of the trench was over 2 ft and the width at the top was estimated at 4 t o 5 feet. A coworker who was operating a backhoe had been instructed by the prop erty owner and the next door property owner to not put any dirt on their lawns. He had stacked the dirt in a pile 8 ft high on the edge of the south bank of the trench. On the last cut, Employee #1 was in the trench with a length of PVC pip e when the south bank collapsed, burying him under an estimated 6 ft of sandy cl
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 22 Male
- Nature of injury
- Asphyxia (2)
- Part of body
- CHEST (5)
- Accident type
- STRUCK BY (1)
- Source of injury
- DIRT/SAND/STONE (12)
- Occupation
- Occupation not reported (999)
- Human factor
- MISJUDGMENT, HAZ. SITUATION (1)
- Environmental factor
- WORK-SURFACE/FACIL-LAYOUT COND (13)
- 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.