OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #891762
D. L. D. ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP
JESSUP, MD·
Event description
Employee killed by overexposure to toxic vapors in tank
Investigation abstract
At approximately 11:30 p.m. on January 16, 1989, Employee #1 entered a 6,500 gal ry apparatus and without establishing constant communication with another employ ee outside of it. The coworker could not remove Employee #1 before he was overco me by the solvent's vapors and had to exit the tank. Emergency help arrived and Employee #1 was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Employe e #1 had not been wearing a safety harness, lifeline, or respirator, and a suppl y of fresh air was not provided. He also was not in constant communication with the coworker who was monitoring him. lon tanker trailer to finish cleaning the inside. He was carrying a 5 gallon buc ket that was one-quarter full of a cleaning agent, Niagara Trex 1900 presol. Aft er approximately five to seven minutes, the employee was overcome by vapors from the solvent and passed out at the bottom of the tank. A coworker positioned out side the tank trailer was washing another tank trailer and checking on Employee #1 every three to five minutes. When he next checked, he saw Employee #1 lying o n the bottom at the tank trailer and immediately asked someone to call 911. The coworker then entered the tank trailer without wearing the appropriate respirato
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 25 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 887
- Human factor
- 19
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 1730
- 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.