OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #849380
SEWER,WALL,COLLAPSE,UNSECURED,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,CRUSHED,PIPE,STRUCK BY,CAVE-IN
Event description
EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN TRENCH CAVES IN
Investigation abstract
On or about May 11, 1989, Employees #1 and #2 were working at the bottom of a tr ench, approximately 8.5 feet deep and approximately 30 to 36 inches wide, instal ling 5-foot sections of an 8-inch.clay sewer pipe. Employees #1 and #2 were stru ck by moving ground when the south wall of the trench collapsed. Employee #1 die d form crushing injuries. Employee #2 escaped unscathed. The causal factors of t he accident were that the trench walls were nearly vertical and were not shored, supported, or adequately sloped. A trench box was not used.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 23 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 5
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 12
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 14
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 32 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 5
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 12
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 14
- 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.