OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14491260
MOBAY CHEMICAL CORP.
HALEDON, NJ—
Event description
EMPLOYEE FELL INTO PUDDLE OF CHEMICALS; DIED OF BURNS
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS OPERATING 3 DYE EXTRACTION VATS. THE THREE VATS WERE AT DIFFEREN LANCE AND FELL OUT OF THE CART AND INTO THE PUDDLE OF CHEMICALS. EMPLOYEE #2 QUI CKLY PULLED HIM OUT OF THE PUDDLE AND INTO A WATER SHOWER. BOTH EMPLOYEES WERE H OSPTALIZED FOR CHEMICAL BURNS. EMPLOYEE #1 DIED IN THE HOSPITAL 20 DAYS LATER. T STAGES IN THE OPERATING CYCLE. ONE OF THE VATS STARTED TO OVERFLOW, SPILLING H OT CHEMICALS ONTO THE FLOOR. EMPLOYEES #1 AND #2 NOTICED THE SPILL AND APPROACHE D THE VAT TO TAKE CORRECTIVE MEASURES. THEY NOTICED A LARGE PUDDLE, SEVERAL INCH ES DEEP, OF THE SPILLED MIXTURE OF PRODUCT AND CAUSTIC SODA IN FRONT OF THE TANK . THE TEMPERATURE OF THE SPILLED MIXTURE WAS ABOUT 95 DEGREES CENTIGRADE. THEY W ERE AFRAID TO STEP INTO THE MIXTURE, SO EMPLOYEE #2 PUSHED A FILTER PRESS CART I NTO THE PUDDLE TO USE TO GET ACROSS THE PUDDLE. EMPLOYEE #1 CLIMBED INTO CART AN D BEGAN CLOSING THE VALVE TO PREVENT FURTHER OVERFLOW. HE APPARENTLY LOST HIS BA
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 43 M
- Nature of injury
- 4
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 4
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 6
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Hazardous substance
- 2260
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 42 M
- Nature of injury
- 4
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 6
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Hazardous substance
- 2260
- Task assigned
- 2
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.