OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14478457
CIBA-GEIGY
NEWPORT, DE—
Event description
REACTOR EXPLOSION
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEES #1 AND #2 ATTEMPTED TO REMOVE THE HEAD OF A PRESSURE VESSEL. THE VESSE L CONTAINED PAINT PIGMENTS AND OTHER CHEMICALS WHICH HAD REACTED TO CREATE HYDRO GEN GAS UNDER CONSIDERABLE PRESSURE IN THE VESSEL. WHEN THE HEAD WAS RAISED SLIG HTLY TO RELIEVE THE INTERNAL PRESSURE, AN EXPLOSION OCCURRED. TO REMOVE THE HEAD , THE EMPLOYEES HAD TO POSITION THEMSELVES DIRECTLY ABOVE IT. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS KI LLED. EMPLOYEE #2 WAS HOSPITALIZED WITH INJURIES.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 30 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 6
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 15
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 23 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 11
- Source
- 6
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 15
- 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.