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 #801795

WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,CAVE-IN

Event
WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,CAVE-IN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
801795
Report ID
454510

Event description

CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYEE KILLED IN TRENCH CAVE-IN

Investigation abstract

ON SEPTEMBER 16, 1987, THREE PIPE LAYERS WERE WORKING IN A 54 FEET LONG, 6 FEET WIDE AND 8 FEET DEEP TRENCH. THEY WERE LAYING 18 FOOT LENGTHS OF 18 INCH DIAMETE R DUCTABLE IRON PIPE. THE WALLS OF THE TRENCH CAVED-IN, TRAPPING EMPLOYEE #1 AND CAUSING HIS DEATH. THE TRENCH WAS NOT SHORED, SLOPED OR OTHERWISE BRACED, AND T HE EXCAVATED MATERIAL WAS PILED 6 FEET HIGH DIRECTLY AT THE EDGE OF THE TRENCH.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 49 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    599
    Human factor
    1
    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.