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 #997874

CHEST,HEAD,TRENCH BOX,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,CAVE-IN

Event
CHEST,HEAD,TRENCH BOX,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH,CAVE-IN
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
997874
Report ID
551800

Event description

CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYEE KILLED IN TRENCH CAVE-IN

Investigation abstract

AT APPROXIMATELY 4:30 PM ON OCTOBER 31, 1986, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS CAUGHT IN A CAVE-I N WHEN HE STEPPED OUT OF THE WEST END OF A TRENCH BOX POSITIONED IN A 35 FEET LO NG, 12 TO 13 FEET DEEP TRENCH. HE RECEIVED MASSIVE TRAUMA TO THE HEAD AND CHEST WHICH RESULTED IN HIS DEATH. THE TRENCH BOX WAS 6 FEET HIGH, 2 TO 3 FEET OFF THE BOTTOM OF THE TRENCH. THE WALLS ABOVE THE TRENCH BOX WERE 3 TO 4 FEET HIGH AND DUG TO THE ANGLE OF REPOSE.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 40 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    1
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    599
    Human factor
    20
    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.