OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #732123
CONTINENTAL MACHINE & ENGINEERING CO INC
EAST CHICAGO, IN·
Event description
Employee killed when struck by flying piece of bronze
Investigation abstract
At approximately 12:10 a.m. on June 14, 1988, Employee #1 was attempting to stra ade contact with the stop block, increased pressure was applied to the bronze pa d, which flew out of the press in two pieces in a south/north direction. One pie ce struck Employee #1 in the jaw and lodged in his throat, causing severe caroti d artery damage and asphyxiation. Employee #1 was treated and taken to St. Cathe rine's Hospital in East Chicago, IN, where he died at 1:10 p.m. on June 14, 1988 . ighten a 6 in. diameter by 12 ft long mild steel shaft, using a Williams/White 6 00 ton capacity vertical hydraulic press. The press is located in the northwest corner of the shop. Employee #1 was standing on the south side of the press oper ating the control handle. To prevent marring, a bronze pad, approximately 1 3/8 in. wide by 1 in. thick by 5 in. long, had been placed between the ram plate and the work piece. A stop block and dial indicator were being used to measure the amount of deflection remaining in the shaft. The work piece had been straightene d to within 1/16 in. When the control handle was not released as the ram plate m
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 33 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 9
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 655
- Human factor
- 17
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Hazardous substance
- 8420
- 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.