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 #975805

CHEST,METAL BAR,INSTALLING,BOOM,IMPALED,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,ABRASION,FALL,AERIAL LIFT,CONTUSION

Event
CHEST,METAL BAR,INSTALLING,BOOM,IMPALED,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,ABRASION,FALL,AERIAL LIFT,CONTUSION
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
975805
Report ID
551800

Event description

Employee killed, another injured, when lift collapses

Investigation abstract

At approximately 1:30 a.m. on September 24, 1988, Employees #1 and #2 were insta lling an overhead water pipe from a hydraulic lift basket. The basket collapsed and fell 15 ft to the floor when the boom column separated from the boom pin at the top knuckle on the lift. As the basket fell, Employee #1 was impaled in the right side of her chest by a 2 foot long by 1 1/2 inch square metal beam that wa s attached in an upright position to a cut-off saw table. Employee #1 was taken to Parkview Hospital in Ft. Wayne, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Emp loyee #2 suffered only minor bruises and abrasions. The hydraulics of the Roto Z oom 30 lift basket, serial #0403712790210, did not fail.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 39 F

    Nature of injury
    18
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    5
    Source
    24
    Occupation code
    864
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    6
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    Task assigned
    2
  2. #2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 33 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    5
    Source
    24
    Occupation code
    518
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    6
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    Task assigned
    2

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.