OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #759001
TANKS UNLIMITED INC
INDIANAPOLIS, IN·
Event description
One employee killed and one injured in used tank explosion
Investigation abstract
Employees #1 and #2 were using oxygen and propane to cut two used tanks, a 6,000 and an 8,000 gallon, which had been in gasoline storage service. Another 6,000 gallon used tank, which had also been in gasoline storage service, exploded and struck Employee #1's tank, which moved 7 ft to the west. Employees #1's tank str uck him and propelled him into the rear of a wrecker truck with cylinders in the horizontal position. The wrecker truck was pushed 12 in. to the west. Employee #1 died instantly of multiple injuries. Employee #2 was knocked to the ground, t reated for shock at the work site, and released. The tanks were not purged and c utting was performed in the presence of flammable vapors.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 18 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 7
- Occupation code
- 783
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Hazardous substance
- 1340
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 50 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 13
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 783
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 10
- Hazardous substance
- 1340
- 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.