OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #758441
TANK TRUCK,STEAM CLEANER,WORK RULES,WELDER,EXPLOSION,PURGING,COMPARTMENT
Event description
EMPLOYEE KILLED IN CONFINED SPACE EXPLOSION
Investigation abstract
AT 3:45 PM ON JUNE 9, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS WORKING INSIDE A SIX FOOT DIAMETER, NINE FOOT LONG COMPARTMENT IN A FORTY FOOT TANKER TRAILER. HE WAS PREPARING TO M AKE AN INTERNAL WELD REPAIR TO A BAFFLE VOID WALL. HE WAS USING A MILLER TIG WEL DER. WHEN THE WELDING TORCH WAS LIT, AN EXPLOSION OCCURRED. THE COMPARTMENT HAD BEEN STEAM-CLEANED BUT THE BAFFLE VOID HAD BEEN PURGED WITH AMBIENT AIR (NOT AN INERT GAS). THE EMPLOYEE WAS DEAD UPON ARRIVAL AT THE HOSPITAL. THE CAUSE OF DEA TH WAS INTERNAL INJURIES RESULTING FROM THE EXPLOSION.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 35 M
- Nature of injury
- 6
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 783
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 2460
- 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.