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 #893321

FRACTURE,HEAD,INSTALLING,BOOM,CONSTRUCTION,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,BACK,BOLT,FALL,ELEVATED WORK PLAT

Event
FRACTURE,HEAD,INSTALLING,BOOM,CONSTRUCTION,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,BACK,BOLT,FALL,ELEVATED WORK PLAT
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
893321
Report ID
355114

Event description

One employee killed, another injured in fall with platform

Investigation abstract

On July 6, 1988, Employees #1 and #2 were approximately 25 ft high on the platfo nd snapped, causing the boom and the platform carrying Employees #1 and #2 in it to crash to the ground. The coworker, hearing the crash, ran out of the buildin g and down to the accident scene. He found Employee #1 on his back half in and h alf off the platform. He was suffering convulsions. Employee #2 was found a coup le of feet from the platform on his stomach with Employee #1's arm on his head. The coworker had to drive approximately one mile to call for help after trying u nsuccessfully to get assistance from residents in the area. Employee #1 was tran sported to Fairfax Hospital, where he died of multiple head injuries at 12:45 p. m. on July 10, 1988. Employee #2, suffering a fractured jaw and back injuries, w as transported to Potomac Hospital. rm of a model 40 John L. Grove manlift installing aluminum soffit on a building in Dale City, VA. They worked the early hours of the day, took off during the ho ttest hours, then returned to work at around 5:00 p.m. Between 6:30 and 6:45 p.m ., Employees #1 and #2, having just finished the soffit on building #36, were on the platform receiving bundles of soffit trim, which they intended to move to t he next building. A coworker had just passed a bundle to the platform and had tu rned to go back upstairs when he heard a crack, then a crashing sound. The rotat or bolts on the turntable assembly, on which the boom was mounted, had sheared a

Victims (4)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 24 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    5
    Source
    24
    Occupation code
    595
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    3
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 24 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    9
    Event type
    5
    Source
    24
    Occupation code
    595
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    3
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #981 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0
  4. #982 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0

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.