104,543Records 70,659Employers 84,666Hospitalizations 27,563Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-09-30
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #689471

WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,SCAFFOLD COLLAPSE,TWO PT SUSP SCAFFOLD,RIVER,FALL,FALL PROTECTION,BRIDGE,DROWN

Event
WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,SCAFFOLD COLLAPSE,TWO PT SUSP SCAFFOLD,RIVER,FALL,FALL PROTECTION,BRIDGE,DROWN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
689471
Report ID
552700

Event description

Two employees killed, coworker injured in scaffold collapse

Investigation abstract

At approximately 5:15 p.m. on April 18, 1985, Employees #1 through #3 were suspe nded approximately 50 feet above the Mississippi River on a two-point suspension scaffold. One of the scaffold's cable ends released and the scaffold broke loos e. Employee #1 fell approximately 40 feet onto a bridge pier and died. Employee #2 fell into the river and drowned. Employee #3 was secured to the scaffold guar drail by his safety belt and fell approximately 40 feet with the scaffold end. H e sustained severe abdominal injuries and was hospitalized.

Victims (3)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 28 M

    Nature of injury
    6
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    5
    Source
    8
    Occupation code
    558
    Human factor
    20
    Environmental factor
    13
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Fatality Age 29 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    5
    Source
    41
    Occupation code
    599
    Human factor
    20
    Environmental factor
    13
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #3 Hospitalized Age 29 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    1
    Event type
    5
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    599
    Human factor
    20
    Environmental factor
    13
    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.