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 #786574

HEAD,COMMUNICATION TOWER,INSTALLING,HOISTING MECHANISM,DRUM,CONSTRUCTION,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,BACK,FALL,WINCH

Event
HEAD,COMMUNICATION TOWER,INSTALLING,HOISTING MECHANISM,DRUM,CONSTRUCTION,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,BACK,FALL,WINCH
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
786574
Report ID
1054114

Event description

One employee killed, one injured in fall from elevated tower

Investigation abstract

A three-person crew was erecting a 400 foot tall, triangular-shaped communicatio ns tower on Blanton Heights. The crew was installing coaxial cable to the tower. Employees #1 and #2 had attached themselves to the pill, a long weighted device with metal rings welded around it, had tied the coax to the pill, and were bein g raised to the top of the tower. For reasons unknown, the dogs disengaged and c ame out of the winch drum, allowing the drum to free-spool. Employees #1 and #2 fell approximately 95 feet to the ground. Employee #1 died at the scene. Employe e #2 sustained head, back, hip, and ankle injuries. He was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital for treatment.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 25 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    5
    Source
    24
    Occupation code
    597
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    8
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 29 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    5
    Source
    24
    Occupation code
    597
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    8
    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.