OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #733105

HEAD,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,DRUM,EXPLOSION,STRUCK BY,FACE,CUTTING AND BURNING

1988-03-03T13:55:00

Event: HEAD,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,DRUM,EXPLOSION,STRUCK BY,FACE,CUTTING AND BURNING
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 733105
Report ID: 522300

Event description

EMPLOYEE INJURED WHEN 55 GALLON DRUM EXPLODED

Investigation abstract

AT APPROXIMATELY 1:55 PM ON MARCH 3, 1988, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS USING A TORCH TO REMO VE THE TOPS FROM 55 GALLON DRUMS WHICH CONTAINED A PETROLEUM PRODUCT RESIDUE. HE HAD REMOVED THE TOPS FROM THREE STEEL DRUMS. WHEN HE TOUCHED THE TOP OF THE FOU RTH DRUM WITH THE TORCH, THE DRUM EXPLODED. THE TOP FLEW OFF AND STRUCK EMPLOYEE #1 IN THE FACE AND HEAD, BREAKING HIS GOGGLES AND CAUSING SEVERE HEAD TRAUMA. E MPLOYEE #1 WAS HOSPITALIZED AND IS IN A COMA.

Victim

#1 Hospitalized Age 25 M

Nature of injury
21

Part of body
13

Event type
1

Source
35

Occupation code
889

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
5

Task assigned
2

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.