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 #796540

CHEST,ABDOMEN,DISINTEGRATED,WORK RULES,STRUCK BY,FLYING OBJECT,GRINDING WHEEL

Event
CHEST,ABDOMEN,DISINTEGRATED,WORK RULES,STRUCK BY,FLYING OBJECT,GRINDING WHEEL
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
796540
Report ID
551800

Event description

EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN STRUCK BY PIECES OF ABRASIVE WHEEL

Investigation abstract

AT APPROXIMATELY 1:15 PM ON AUGUST 31, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS EITHER GRINDING PAR TS OR DRESSING AN ABRASIVE WHEEL. THE WHEEL WAS 26 INCHES IN DIAMETER AND 2 INCH ES THICK. THE WHEEL SUDDENLY DISINTEGRATED. SEVERAL PIECES STRUCK EMPLOYEE #1 IN THE CHEST AND ABDOMEN, CAUSING MASSIVE INJURIES. THE EMPLOYEE DIED AT BREMEN HO SPITAL LATER IN THE DAY. THE ABRASIVE WHEEL WAS NOT SPEED TESTED OR RING TESTED BEFORE IT WAS MOUNTED ON THE FOX STAND GRINDER. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS STANDING APPROXI MATELY 1 FOOT IN FRONT OF THE WHEEL WHEN IT EXPLOSIVELY DISINTEGRATED.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 61 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    1
    Source
    26
    Occupation code
    709
    Human factor
    12
    Environmental factor
    5
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    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.