OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #694026

RUBATEX CORPORATION

BEDFORD, VA· 1986-01-24T00:00:00

Event: HEAD, EQUIPMENT FAILURE, NITROGEN, EXPLOSION, HIGH PRESSURE, STRUCK BY, FLYING OBJECT, DOOR, PRESSURE RELEASE
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Accident-driven
Activity number: #3344652
Employer profile: RUBATEX CORPORATION
Summary number: 694026
Report ID: 355118

Event description

One killed, twelve injured when vessel explodes

Investigation abstract

At approximately 11:40 a.m. on January 24, 1986, Employees #1 and #3 were struck d and body injuries. Employees #3 through #13 suffered cuts, bruises, laceration s, and concussions. by the 2 ton door of chamber #7 of the gas chamber department, and Employees #2 and #4 through #13 were struck by airborne debris and equipment. The cover/door had been held in place with three clamping devices; when the clamping devices a top the vessel fractured, additional stress was placed on the remaining two clam ping devices, which quickly failed and fractured. Nitrogen gas was released from a nitrogen gas chamber under approximately 4500 lb of pressure that had been in chamber #7. Debris and equipment became airborne, striking the employees. Emplo yee #1 died at 8:15 p.m. on February 11, 1986. Employee #2 suffered multiple hea

Victims (14)

#1 Fatality Age 51 M

Nature of injury
21

Part of body
4

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
307

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#10 Non-hospitalized injury Age 57 M

Nature of injury
6

Part of body
4

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
715

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#11 Non-hospitalized injury Age 51 M

Nature of injury
6

Part of body
6

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
999

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#12 Non-hospitalized injury Age 46 M

Nature of injury
6

Part of body
6

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
999

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#13 Non-hospitalized injury Age 33 M

Nature of injury
6

Part of body
6

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
999

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#14 Non-hospitalized injury Age 34 M

Nature of injury
6

Part of body
6

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
999

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#2 Hospitalized Age 51 M

Nature of injury
12

Part of body
13

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
715

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#3 Hospitalized Age 47 M

Nature of injury
12

Part of body
16

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
705

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#4 Hospitalized Age 42 M

Nature of injury
6

Part of body
4

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
705

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#5 Hospitalized Age 51 M

Nature of injury
7

Part of body
19

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
715

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#6 Non-hospitalized injury Age 43 M

Nature of injury
7

Part of body
19

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
715

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#7 Non-hospitalized injury Age 58 M

Nature of injury
6

Part of body
4

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
633

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#8 Non-hospitalized injury Age 53 M

Nature of injury
6

Part of body
4

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
633

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

Task assigned
1
#9 Hospitalized Age 57 M

Nature of injury
6

Part of body
4

Event type
1

Source
2

Occupation code
633

Human factor
6

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1900

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.