OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #889170
OXYGEN DEFICIENCY,UNCONSCIOUSNESS,ASPHYXIATED,REPAIR,CONFINED SPACE,CPR,WORK RULES,NITROGEN,ELEC UTILITY WORK,WATER TANK
Event description
DIVER KILLED, ANOTHER SUFFERS ASPHYXIA IN CONFINED SPACE
Investigation abstract
Some electric utility employees were assigned to repair a level switch mechanism line but could not see Employee #2 in the tank. Employee #1 entered the tank in an apparent rescue operation. He was not wearing a lifeline, nor was he using re lated emergency rescue equipment. The second diver tender, who was still holding the lifeline attached to Employee #2, yelled for assistance and, with the help of three coworkers, was able to raise Employee #2 to the bottom of the manhole o pening. Since the line was around his lower chest, Employee #2's body was in a h orizontal position, and the other employees had to reposition his body at an ang le. The employees successfully completed the rescue and revived Employee #2 by a dministering cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. However, they could not see Employe e #1 at this time. They summoned a professional diver, who found Employee #1 at inside a 1136-kiloliter make-up water tank (condensate tank #11). The project r the bottom of the tank. He had been asphyxiated. Employee #2 was hospitalized fo r his injuries. The dive team was not aware that a nitrogen blanket was in the s pace above the water. The team had not tested the atmosphere for oxygen. Employe es were trained in confined space entry, but were not following entry procedures . In addition, the team had not obtained a confined-space permit, which would ha ve required air monitoring from the Fire and Safety Department. equired entry by a diver using a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus i nto the tank. Employee #2, the diver, obtained a diving permit and was evaluatin g means of entry as a predive drill to determine whether he could enter the manh ole with his tanks and scuba or if they would have to be passed down to him afte r entry. He was wearing a lifeline when he went down the fixed ladder and into t he tank. After he descended 203 millimeters, he was overcome and fell into the w ater. The diver tenders (Employee #1 and another employee) were holding the life
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 34 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 12
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 699
- Human factor
- 4
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 1900
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 56 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 699
- Human factor
- 4
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 1900
- 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.