OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #768697
ASPHYXIATED,LIFELINE,GRAIN,WORK RULES,STORAGE TANK,LOCKOUT,FLOWING MATERIAL,CAVE-IN,UNTRAINED
Event description
Employee dies of asphyxia in grain cave-in
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 and two coworkers entered a grain storage tank from the ground level xiation. Causal factors include: lack of employee training in bin entry procedur es, lack of effective lockout/tagout procedures, and lack of a lifeline or restr aining device to prevent an employee from sinking into the grain. , climbing the sloping grain to a height of about 20 ft to clear the tank walls. The tank measured 117 by 72 ft and was approximately 1/3 full of millet. The tw o coworkers brushed the walls and threw the sour grain chuck down to Employee #1 , who was located below. The operator, who was positioned at the control panel o utside the tank, started the underground auger conveyor and opened one of the ga tes on the floor of the tank to permit the grain to flow into the conveyor. Empl oyee #1 got too close to the gate and effectively had the floor cut out from und er him. The resulting slide of grain from above buried him, and he died of asphy
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 17 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 11
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 18
- Environmental factor
- 18
- 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.