105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #893180

CHEST,HEART,DISINTEGRATED,WORK RULES,STRUCK BY,FLYING OBJECT,GRINDING WHEEL,UNGUARDED

Event
CHEST,HEART,DISINTEGRATED,WORK RULES,STRUCK BY,FLYING OBJECT,GRINDING WHEEL,UNGUARDED
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
893180
Report ID
355114

Event description

Employee killed when struck in heart by abrasive fragments

Investigation abstract

At approximately 4:50 p.m. on June 20, 1988, Employee #1 was at a work bench sha rpening a rotary lawnmower blade that was secured in a vise. He was using a Flor ida pneumatic FP 2000 high speed sander, serial #50736, that was equipped with a n unguarded 4 1/2 in. reinforced type 27 grinding wheel. The grinding wheel frac tured and a fragment penetrated Employee #1's lower left chest and his heart, ki lling him. At the time of the accident, a bench grinder that was normally used t o sharpen blades was being used by another employee.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 42 M

    Nature of injury
    18
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    1
    Source
    21
    Occupation code
    505
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    5
    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.