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 #731596

CHEST,BLOCKS,WORK RULES,RAILROAD CAR,CRUSHED,STRUCK BY,INATTENTION

Event
CHEST,BLOCKS,WORK RULES,RAILROAD CAR,CRUSHED,STRUCK BY,INATTENTION
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
731596
Report ID
551800

Event description

EMPLOYEE CRUSHED BETWEEN RAIL CARS

Investigation abstract

AT APPROXIMATELY 4:30 AM ON JUNE 24, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1, A REMOTE CONTROL OPERATO UCK EMPLOYEE #1 IN THE BACK AND CONTINUED ON, STRIKING CAR USGX 63. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS CRUSHED, AT CHEST HEIGHT, BETWEEN THE TWO CARS. SHE WAS PRONOUNCED DEAD AT T HE SCENE. THE PRIMARY CAUSE IF THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE FAILURE TO BLOCK CAR EJ&E 8 16 TO PREVENT ITS DRIFTING. R AT THE 84 INCH SLAB ANNEX, USX GARY WORKS, WAS SPOTTING SLAB CARS AT THE SLAB STAGING AREA. SHE PLACED CAR EJ&E 816 ON TRACK 8P AND UNCOUPLED IT WITHOUT BLOCK ING IT. SHE THEN MOVED THE REST OF THE TRAIN (19 CARS) TO THE SOUTHWEST TO A SWI TCH ABOUT 100 FEET FROM CAR EJ&E 816. SHE THEN SWITCHED THE TRAIN OVER TO TRACK 12P. SHE THEN WALKED TO THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE TRAIN TO OBSERVE THE LOCOMOTIVE AN D THE REMAINDER OF THE CARS. SHE POSITIONED HERSELF BETWEEN TRACK 9P AND AND THE TRAIN WITH HER BACK TO CAR EJ&E 816. AS CAR USGX 63 WAS PASSING HER, CAR EJ&E 8 16 WAS SLOWLY DRIFTING BACK TOWARD HER. THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF CAR EJ&E 816 STR

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 47 F

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    1
    Event type
    2
    Source
    38
    Occupation code
    824
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    4
    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.