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 #981407

BOARD,EXCAVATION,TRENCH,TRENCH DIGGER,LACERATION,SHORING,CAVE-IN,SHOVEL,SPRAIN

Event
BOARD,EXCAVATION,TRENCH,TRENCH DIGGER,LACERATION,SHORING,CAVE-IN,SHOVEL,SPRAIN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
981407
Report ID
551800

Event description

EMPLOYEES INJURED IN TRENCH CAVE IN

Investigation abstract

On April 3, 1989, Employee #1 and Employee #2 were shoveling dirt in a 13 ft squ g of the excavation. are by 10 ft deep excavation. A coworker heard a board crack and shouted to Empl oyee's #1 and #2 to get out of the excavation. Employee's #1 and #2 were unable to exit before the south side of the excavation caved in and were knocked down a nd covered by 6-in. by 6-in. and 2-in. by 8-in. whalers. Employee's #1 and #2 we re able to free and pull themselves from the excavation, and were treated on sit e by paramedics. Employee #1 suffered a cut above his right eye and Employee #2 suffered a strained muscle in his lower right leg. The whalers were not of prope r size and the cleats were left off, further no cross braces were used in shorin

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 54 M

    Nature of injury
    7
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    869
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    13
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 31 M

    Nature of injury
    20
    Part of body
    18
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    869
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    13
    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.