OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14506257
BLACKHAWK SERVICES INC
GILCHREST, CO—
Event description
EMPLOYEE STRUCK BY PIECE OF EXPLODING VALVE
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS STANDING AT THE SIDE OF A GAS WELLHEAD, APPARENTLY OPENING THE B UP TO 2,000 POUNDS. ALL VALVE IN THE CASING LINE. A CHECK VALVE IN THE FLOW LINE EXPLODED. A LARGE P IECE OF THE EXPLODING VALVE ENTERED EMPLOYEE #1'S CHEST, INFLICTING FATAL INJURI ES. FOR REASONS UNKNOWN TO ANYONE, EMPLOYEE #1 HAD THE ENTIRE WELLHEAD SYSTEM, F ROM THE WELL TO THE SEPARATOR, CLOSED. HE THEN OPENED THE CASING LINE BELL VALVE , ALLOWING GAS TO FLOW INTO THE SYSTEM THROUGH THE CASING LINE AND BUILD UP GAS PRESSURE. APPARENTLY THE BACK PRESSURE AGAINST THE FLOW LINE CHECK VALVE CAUSED THE VALVE TO EXPLODE. THE VALVE WAS FOUND TO BE RATED AT 300 POUNDS WORKING PRES SURE (450 POUNDS TEST). IT WAS BEING USED IN A SYSTEM WITH A WORKING PRESSURE OF
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 34 M
- Nature of injury
- 18
- Part of body
- 5
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 35
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 4
- 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.