OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #825398
SUFFOCATED,UNSECURED,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,PIPE
Event description
EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN TRENCH COLLAPSES
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 and a coworker were installing 4 in. sewer pipe into newly construct he right side of the trench cracked about 2 ft behind his coworker, throwing Emp loyee #1 to the ground. The right wall of the trench collapsed burying him under rain-saturated dirt. After about 15 minutes, Employee #1's head was uncovered. It took at least another 30 to 40 minutes to free him completely. Employee #1 wa s taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. ed townhouses. The trench for the pipe was approximately 12 ft deep (or deeper), 18 ft long, and 10 ft wide. The coworker stated he had cut back the top on each side of the trench one backhoe bucket width; the trench walls were unsupported. Employee #1 jumped into the trench as his coworker was finishing digging, and s tarted connecting the pipe. After his coworker stopped digging, he got off the b ackhoe and walked to the edge of the trench standing on the right side facing th e house. He stood there for about one and a half minutes as Employee #1 worked o n the pipe. Employee #1 started walking in the trench away from the house when t
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 20 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 12
- Source
- 12
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- 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.