105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #777987

CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,UNSTABLE SOIL,BURIED,CAVE-IN

Event
CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,UNSTABLE SOIL,BURIED,CAVE-IN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
777987
Report ID
854910

Event description

Employee killed in trench cave-in

Investigation abstract

Employee #1 was working in a 6 ft tall trench box in a trench that had a flow li ne of 16 ft. The top of the trench was 18 to 20 ft wide. The bottom of the trenc h was 4 to 6 ft wide. The south side of the trench had been sloped at the top 8 ft wider than the box. The north side of the trench had been sloped at the top 6 ft wider than the box. The employees hit groundwater while at the 13 ft level. The south wall of the trench caved in, burying Employee #1 inside the box and ki lling him.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 24 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    599
    Human factor
    4
    Environmental factor
    13
    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.