Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025
105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14223788

HUNTINGBURG MACHINE WORKS

Event
SEWER, FRACTURE, CONSTRUCTION, TRENCH, PIPELINE, CAVE-IN, WATER
NAICS
000000
Inspection type
Accident-driven
Activity number
#2686079
Employer profile
HUNTINGBURG MACHINE WORKS
Summary number
14223788
Report ID
551800

Event description

EMPLOYEE INJURED IN TRENCH CAVE-IN

Investigation abstract

At approximately 10:30 a.m. on September 24, 1985, a trench cave-in occurred, al was 6 to 7 feet. The soil of the trench consisted of loose clay. Part of the tr ench consisted of clay fill dirt. The water line ran from the street to a valve station in place. Then, a 6 inch sprinkler line and a 3 inch regular water suppl y line ran from the valve station to the building about 14 feet away. The accide nt had occurred between the valve station and building, the eastern section of t he trench. most covering Employee#1 of Huntingburg Machine Works. Employee#1 was hospitaliz ed with fractures. Work had started in the trench at about 7:30 a.m. that day. T he company employed plumbers, pipe fitters, and steam fitters for the work. The trench had previously been dug on September 20, 1985. Employees had run some wat er line in the trench on September 23, 1985. Later, as a result of rain, they sh ut down the water line work. The trench ran west and east. It was 28 inches wide in the western section and 5 feet wide in the eastern section. The approximate depth of the trench in the western section was 4 feet and in the eastern section

Victim

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 24 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    14
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    585
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    4
    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.