OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #888834
EXCAVATION,ASPHYXIATED,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,UNSTABLE SOIL,BURIED,CAVE-IN,UNTRAINED
Event description
Employee killed in excavation cave-in
Investigation abstract
Employees were constructing an interlocking retaining wall at the entrance to a construction site. The retaining wall was being built at the base of a 1/2:1 slo ped excavation into a 32 ft high hill. Employee #1 and a coworker were working n ear the base of the hill when a section of earth slid down and trapped them. Whi le a rescue effort was taking place, a second slide occurred, burying Employee # 1 completely and burying two coworkers to their waists. Employee #1 died of asph yxia. All three coworkers were transported to the hospital for observation. The employees had not been properly trained in trenching or excavation safety.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 22 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 4
- 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.