OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14297345
GEORGE R HARDESTY INC
BALTIMORE, MD—
Event description
Employee sustains minor injuries when trench caves in
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was working in a 14 ft wide by 16 ft long by 13 to 14 ft deep trench , assisting in the repair of a broken sewer main. The broken main had undermined some of the soil and the area had been previously excavated when the original e quipment was installed. As a result, the soil was soft and unstable. Employee #1 was working in the unshored trench when one side of it collapsed, covering him with 6 to 7 in. of dirt. He received only minor injuries. The employer had attem pted to slope the trench but was hampered in his effort by other utilities in th e area (see diagram of site); the operation was completed using a trench shield.
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 57 M
- Nature of injury
- 20
- Part of body
- 21
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 587
- Human factor
- 2
- 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.