OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14481246

MASSA OIL COMPANY

LOONEYVILLE, WV— 1984-08-29T00:00:00

Event: GAS WELL, PIPE WRENCH, HIGH PRESSURE PIPE, HIGH PRESSURE, VALVE, PIPE
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Accident-driven
Activity number: #1756758
Employer profile: MASSA OIL COMPANY
Summary number: 14481246
Report ID: 316400

Event description

HIGH PRESSURE PIPE RUPTURE ON GAS WELL

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE WAS ATTEMPTING TO OPEN A VALVE ON A NEWLY FRACTURED GAS WELL, USING A P IPE WRENCH. THIS WAS TO RELEASE THE EXCESS PRESSURE ON THE WELL. AFTER GETTING T HE VALVE HALF OPEN, THE PIPES SEPARATED WITH GREAT FORCE, KNOCKING THE EMPLOYEE' S HAND HOLDING THE PIPE WRENCH UPWARD. THIS ACTION CAUSED THE PIPE WRENCH TO STR IKE THE EMPLOYEE IN THE RIGHT TEMPLE AREA, CAUSING SEVERE BRAIN DAMAGE. THE EMPL OYEE WAS DOA AT ROANE GENERAL HOSPITAL.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 62 M

Nature of injury
12

Part of body
13

Event type
1

Source
22

Occupation code
999

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
15

Hazardous substance
1640

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.