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 #978346

PINNED,WORK RULES,TRENCH,SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,BURIED,CAVE-IN

Event
PINNED,WORK RULES,TRENCH,SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,BURIED,CAVE-IN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
978346
Report ID
454735

Event description

One employee killed, one injured by trench cave-in

Investigation abstract

Employees #1 and #2 were repairing a 6 in. water pipe in an unshored 12 to 14 ft deep trench in New Johnsonville, TN. The first 6 to 7 feet of the trench was fi ll dirt. Employee #1 entered the hole to help Employee #2. The supervisor and a volunteer fireman were at the top of the unshored hole. The dirt shifted into th e hole, pinning both employees. Employee #1 was killed, but Employee #2 dug hims elf out.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 31 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    863
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 28 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    863
    Human factor
    1
    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.