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 #977157

CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,DROWN,SLOPING,CAVE-IN,WATER

Event
CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,SHORING,DROWN,SLOPING,CAVE-IN,WATER
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
977157
Report ID
454715

Event description

CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYEE DROWNED IN TRENCH; WATER MAIN BROKEN

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1, A PART TIME SUMMER LABORER, WAS RECONNECTING A SEWER LINE IN A 7 FO OT DEEP TRENCH. THE TRENCH WAS NOT SHORED OR SLOPED. A CAVE-IN OCCURRED, TRAPPIN G EMPLOYEE #1 IN THE TRENCH AND RUPTURING A 6 INCH WATER MAIN LOCATED ABOUT 3 FE ET ABOVE THE SEWER LINE. THE TRENCH FILLED WITH WATER, DROWNING THE TRAPPED EMPL OYEE.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 19 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    14
    Source
    41
    Occupation code
    869
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    18
    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.