OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #997411
MANHOLE COVER,WORK RULES,PIT,FALL,FLOOR OPENING,UNGUARDED
Event description
EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN SHE FELL INTO A COAL BIN
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1, A LABORER ASSIGNED TO THE COAL HANDLING SECTION OF THE COKE PLANT, ON TO HER HAND LONG ENOUGH TO PULL HER OUT. EMPLOYEE #1 FELL APPROXIMATELY 75 FE ET TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PIT AND WAS KILLED. THE EMPLOYEES SHOULD HAVE ASSIGNED S OMEONE TO ATTEND THE OPENING OR INSTALLED PORTABLE RAILINGS AROUND IT. THE COVER WAS ABOUT 31 INCHES IN DIAMETER. BETHLEHEM STEEL CORP. (BURNS HARBOR WORKS), WAS PREPARING TO CLEAN THE INTERIOR OF COAL BIN "D" ON OCTOBER 19, 1987. AT APPROXIMATELY 10 AM, EMPLOYEE #1 AND ANO THER EMPLOYEE REMOVED THE PIT COVER. NO PORTABLE STANDARD RAILING WAS PLACED ARO UND THE FLOOR OPENING TO GUARD IT. THE TWO EMPLOYEES LEFT THE JOB SITE IN DIFFER ENT DIRECTIONS TO PICK UP EQUIPMENT THEY WOULD BE NEEDING FOR THE CLEANING JOB. THE OTHER EMPLOYEE NOTICED EMPLOYEE #1 WALKING TOWARD THE PIT PARALLEL TO COAL C ONVEYOR 28A. HE THEN WATCHED AS EMPLOYEE #1 WALKED TO THE OPENING AND FELL THROU GH. THE SECOND EMPLOYEE ATTEMPTED TO HELP EMPLOYEE #1, BUT WAS NOT ABLE TO HOLD
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 43 F
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 5
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 27
- Occupation code
- 864
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 14
- 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.