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Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #904243

COLLAPSE,CONSTRUCTION,TORCH,FALL,BRIDGE

Event
COLLAPSE,CONSTRUCTION,TORCH,FALL,BRIDGE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
904243
Report ID
551800

Event description

TWO EMPLOYEES KILLED WHEN PART OF CONVEYOR BRIDGE COLLAPSES

Investigation abstract

At approximately 11:00 a.m. on November 21, 1989, Employees #1 and #2 were worki ng on the center span of a three-span conveyor bridge. Employees #1 and #2 were approximately 91 feet from the ground and were using cutting torches to drop the southern span from the middle span. The north span, which was cut on the previo us day, was allowed to fall freely and hinged from the coal bunker. When the fin al cuts were made on the south span, it fell as planned. However, the south towe r, middle span, and north tower shifted and collapsed with Employees #1 and #2 o n the middle span. Employees #1 and #2 were killed. The span was 339 feet long, and from 74 feet to 129 feet high.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 31 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    31
    Event type
    5
    Source
    8
    Occupation code
    597
    Human factor
    17
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Fatality Age 47 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    31
    Event type
    5
    Source
    8
    Occupation code
    597
    Human factor
    17
    Environmental factor
    6
    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.