OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #977629
SYNAIR CORP
CHATTANOOGA, TN·
Event description
One employee killed, one injured by toxic vapors
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 entered a tank (confined space) containing 1,1,1-trichloroethane and was overcome by the toxic fumes. Employee #2, a management official who attempt ed to rescue him, had to be dragged from the tank after he was also overcome. Em ployee #1 died of asphyxia. The protective respiratory equipment used for this o peration was the wrong type for use in a confined space. The workplace atmospher e was not tested prior to entry, and safety harnesses and lifelines were not ava ilable.
Victims (3)
-
#1 Fatality Age 20 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 889
- Human factor
- 19
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 1720
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 43 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 19
- Human factor
- 19
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 1720
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#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
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.